Endangered Species
by Blazil
Summary: When Bardock knocked over a table in the bar on planet Vegeta, and warned that Frieza was planning to destroy the Saiyan race, one Saiyan actually believed him. This individual intends to do whatever is necessary to ensure the survival of at least a small group of Saiyans, so that one day they will be able to take on Frieza.
1. The escape

**Dear reader,**

**I thank you for your interest in my story. What you are planning to read is something that attempts to stand out from other stories in the Dragon Ball Z category.**

**This story is about other surviving Saiyans besides those known in canon. I realize this has been overdone so much that it might be considered incredibly boring and unoriginal. However, this is why I attempted to make it interesting again.**

**The main focus of the story will be on a small group of original characters. Some canon characters do appear, but only on the sidelines. All events of this story fit in the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z timelines. This means canon events are exactly the same as in the source material. My story explores what unknown events could have happened elsewhere in the universe. I can tell you now that Earth and its associated characters will ****not**** appear in this story.**

**I also decided not to use a standard quoted dialog structure in an attempt to present a less commonly used storytelling perspective.**

**Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have corrected every mistake yet. If there are any mistakes or inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them. **

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><p><span>Chapter 1: The escape<span>

Somewhere in the vast deserts of planet Vegeta, there was a small lake surrounded by an oasis. The oasis had been uninhabited until today. It had now been claimed by three humanoid creatures with monkey-like tails: three Saiyans. They consisted of two parents and their son. All three Saiyans were wearing clothing made out of animal skins. The father was a tall and muscled man with short black hair; a fairly typical looking Saiyan. He was lying down in the grass on his back, with his eyes closed, seemingly asleep. The mother had a much smaller and more slender physique than the man. She had long and bushy dark hair with a bluish hue. She was lying in the grass close to the man, with her head resting on his chest, while also being seemingly asleep. A short distance away from them was a young boy with a short and stocky body, who was having a lot of fun by himself. He was punching the trunk of a large tree until all the fruits had fallen out, and then started to eat them one by one. The two suns were shining brightly, the oasis was theirs, and the three of them were free of any worries or obligations. There could not be a more beautiful day than this.

This idyllic scene soon faded away when something began making a beeping noise. The father awoke in his bunk bed, and resisted the urge to crush his beeping scouter that was sitting on his nightstand. He opened his eyes to find a white and nearly empty room around him. His body and face had become scarred, his hair had become thin and it had receded about halfway his head. His wife and son were nowhere to be seen. There was nothing in the room that indicated that they had ever even existed. All the father had left were his memories. At least he had proof that he himself existed. There was a certificate on one of the walls that declared that he, Ullicu, had been granted the title of baron by King Vegeta for showing exceptional loyalty and bravery during the Saiyan civil war. Ullicu believed he had deserved the honor, but not for the reasons that were mentioned.

On another wall, there was a screen that showed a list of missions. It was a list of pending planet purging missions, which were still in the pool, waiting to be selected by an attack squad. Ullicu was not a permanent member of any team or squad. He usually took on missions if a squad was a member short. When going on a mission, he kept to himself most of the time and accepted the orders of the squad leader like a loyal dog. He wasn't looking for excitement, adventure, honor, or new challenges. He just wanted to make a living, and fighting was the only skill he had. Right now, he wasn't in the mood to accept another mission. His head hurt, and he wasn't even sure if it was morning or evening, since he usually slept whenever he could afford to do so, regardless of the time of day. He felt like he needed a drink, and decided to head towards the nearest bar.

Ullicu was sitting alone at a table in the back, minding his own business, when he heard a table being knocked over. Only half interested, he looked over his shoulder to see what was going on. He saw a warrior, known as Bardock, getting up. Bardock's face was covered in blood and his armor was partially destroyed. It looked like he was half dead. When he heard Bardock mention the name Frieza, Ullicu snapped back to reality. He tried to listen to what Bardock was saying, while the other Saiyans in the room made fun of the beaten warrior. Bardock insisted that Frieza was coming for them, that the tyrant had become scared of the Saiyans and wanted them all dead. He even admitted that due to Frieza's men, his whole squad was now dead. Ullicu knew that Frieza was not to be underestimated. The Saiyans were nothing compared to the unbelievable power of Frieza, or even some of his henchmen. Ullicu had once witnessed Frieza destroying a Saiyan with a simple blink of his eye. If what Bardock said was indeed true, then the whole Saiyan race was in danger. It then shocked Ullicu to find out that none of the other Saiyans in the room took Bardock's story seriously. Before Ullicu could respond however, Bardock proclaimed that he was going to try to stop Frieza himself, and promptly left the room.

Ullicu tried to think fast about what he should do. Should he follow Bardock and help him take on Frieza? No, that would only be suicide. His own power level of 5500 wasn't going to make much of a difference. Bardock was already dead. Maybe he could try and convince the Saiyans in the room in a more subtle way, but he didn't see any reason why they would believe him anymore than Bardock. Ullicu's status as a titled second class warrior might influence some, but certainly not those who were still making jokes about the story they had just heard. Ullicu then quietly got up and walked towards the exit without drawing any attention to himself. Since there was no one in the bar he really knew well, nobody bothered to ask him where he was going. Once he had left the room, he increased his pace to the point of running. He didn't want to waste any more time. He had thought up a plan: to gather and convince as many open-minded Saiyans as he could find, and then to get as far away from Frieza as they could. In his eyes, he was not running away from a battle, he merely wanted to make sure that when the time was right, there would still be at least some Saiyans left to take on Frieza. Right now, it wasn't going to be a battle; it was going to be a slaughter.

While he was running through the corridors, thinking about where he should go to find a single person who would believe him, someone suddenly appeared from behind a corner. He barely managed to stop in time to avoid crashing into her. When he had finally come to a halt, the young woman stared at him for a moment, before nervously smiling and apologizing. She had short hair, kind eyes, and wore armor with a grey color scheme. Ullicu's first impression was that she wasn't a warrior, but a worker. Nevertheless, he noticed the Saiyan tail wrapped around her waist. He then told her that they were in imminent danger and needed to leave the planet at once. She believed him right away, and decided to join him. Ullicu wasn't sure whether it was because he looked very convincing, or because she was just that naïve. Whatever the case was, the most important thing was that he had found someone.

Ullicu and the young woman, Chayandi, now exited one of the corridors that led to a landing platform. On the platform, there were several people. Three of them were Saiyans and two others were locally stationed henchmen of Frieza. The three Saiyans consisted of a man and two women. Ullicu had met one of them before. It was Tidane, a young third class warrior. Ullicu had supported her squad on a mission a few days ago. He trusted her, and she trusted him. His few words and the look on his face persuaded Tidane to go with them. She did not believe Ullicu would make up something like this. Ullicu then ordered the two men of Frieza to alert nearby Saiyans of the impending attack, and to recommend evacuation. At the same time, he thought of what little difference it would make. He imagined Frieza and his most elite henchmen landing on Planet Vegeta and blasting away entire cities. Though initially hesitating, the two henchmen acknowledged the order when Ullicu raised his voice at them. They then ran inside the nearby building and disappeared out of view.

At the landing platform, there were enough space pods for the five Saiyans. Instead of focusing on convincing the others, Ullicu decided to start plotting a course for them to take, after leaving the planet. To do this, he needed to know where Frieza was right now, and promptly used his scouter to find the highest power level in the area. Right before the blue glass shattered, as the device overloaded, he read a power level of about 22.000. It didn't seem like the counter would have stopped anytime soon. However, the scouter had succeeded in finding the location of the power level. It was somewhere up in the red sky. It seemed that Frieza's ship was already approaching the planet, and almost entering the atmosphere. This was sooner than Ullicu had expected. If they wanted to make a clean escape without being tracked, then they needed to go right now. There wasn't any more time to get more warriors to join them, so he continued to set a course. The course he had in mind would take them to the far side of the planet, while still flying through the atmosphere. When the planet would be in between Frieza's ship and their space pods, they could leave without being tracked.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group had noticed Ullicu's scouter exploding. To Tidane, this was confirmation of the fact that Ullicu was serious about what he had said. The others, the young male warrior Tarnece and his mother Sorra didn't think much of it. However, when Tidane was about to enter her space pod, Tarnece suddenly made the decision to join the group. This surprised his mother, who grabbed him by the collar of his armor and demanded to know what he was doing. Tarnece pulled himself free from her grip and told her that he was free to go wherever he wanted, and that he did not need to explain himself to her. He then boarded another space pod. His mother Sorra sighed, and mumbled to herself that she had made Tarnece's late father a promise not to lose track of their rebellious son. That was why she too decided to join the group.

When the five of them had boarded their pods, Ullicu told them to synchronize their computers with the course he had programmed. A moment later they were ready for take-off. The doors of the pods closed, and all at once the five pods launched into the sky. They made their way to the other side of the planet within only a few minutes of time, and quickly left the atmosphere. Ullicu then remembered something very important. He used the communicator of his pod to order the others to remove and destroy their scouters to eliminate the final way they could be tracked.

In the meantime, high above the surface of planet Vegeta, Bardock had already fought his way through the masses of henchmen, who were protecting Frieza's ship. At that moment, Frieza decided to come out and take care of the mess himself. Bardock, confident in his abilities, claimed that the Saiyans no longer worked for the tyrant, and that they were now free of his rule. What he didn't know, was that King Vegeta and his elite warriors had similarly attempted to assassinate Frieza. However, that had failed horribly, and the king had been killed only a few minutes earlier. Bardock now launched his most powerful attack, the Final Spirit Cannon, at Frieza. Just as it was about to hit him, the tiny energy ball on Frieza's finger began to grow exponentially and the tyrant started laughing like a maniac. Much to Bardock's disbelief, his own attack was swallowed by the enormous yellow sphere of energy. Frieza then fired the ball at Bardock with a simple finger movement. It consumed the Saiyan warrior, along with many still loyal henchmen. But it wasn't over just yet. The ball was so powerful, that it continued to move towards the planet. A few seconds later, it entered the atmosphere with a loud thundering sound. Even the surface of the planet couldn't stop it. And so it drilled its way through the outer crust and into the mantle. Everyone who was still on the planet, Saiyans and other members of the planet trade, could only wonder for a few seconds as to what was happening. Before they even knew what was going on, they perished, as the disintegrated core of the planet exploded, which caused the entire planetary surface to shatter like it was made of glass. The entire planet was now reduced to being merely pieces of debris. Frieza, being unaffected by the impacting debris, was still laughing maniacally, enjoying the fireworks that his powers had brought forth.

It only took a few seconds for the lightning fast shockwave to catch up with the escaping pods. All five Saiyans felt the turbulence, but only one of them knew that this had to be the direct result of Frieza's power. Ullicu looked out the front window of his pod, and noticed a large meteor swiftly passing the group. He was unsure of the origin of the meteor, but he knew that it was a bad sign. There was a part of him that believed their planet had been completely destroyed. But he had no proof. Preoccupied with his thoughts, he used the pod communications system to tell the rest to activate their hibernation systems in order to save the resources of their pods. A moment later, he did the same.

The beeping of an alarm made Ullicu realize that he was awake again. The ship's computer had interrupted his hibernation state to inform him that they were approaching the targeted planet. He looked at the display for the clock and calendar. About eight hours had passed. A dark, greenish sphere had appeared right in front of the pods. As far as Ullicu knew, it was a barren, uninhabited and uninteresting planet, but it had breathable air, so it would be a good place for them to regroup. The pods entered the atmosphere and created five craters shortly thereafter.

When all of them had exited the pods and gathered, there was some confusion among them about the origin of the shockwave they had felt. Ullicu tried his best to hide his belief that the planet might have been destroyed, by claiming they had felt the effects of flying through the tail of a high speed comet. There was something about the way he said it that made Tidane suspect he was hiding something. She asked him why, after telling the truth, he would start lying now. Ullicu insisted that he was not lying; he was simply theorizing what could have been the cause of the turbulence. He also told her that whatever she thought had happened, there simply was no proof. Tidane then bluntly stated that she believed that their home planet had been destroyed. Sorra and Tarnece immediately countered by claiming that that was impossible. The only one who didn't involve herself in the discussion was Chayandi, who was quietly sitting on the ground, staring at the sky. Tidane then suggested they contact the main communications tower on planet Vegeta to put this discussion to rest.


	2. The purge

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

**Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have corrected every mistake yet. If there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

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><p><span>Chapter 2: The purge<span>

Somewhere in Frieza's vast empire, on a planet known only as #57, two members of the Planet Trade Organization had gathered in an empty storage room. One was a tall and muscular human-like alien with long red hair, named Lakeeme. The other was an alien with an elongated head, and purple skin with yellow dots, named Peorr. Both were wearing orange and black colored variants of the standard issue armor of the PTO, but they were not wearing scouters. Lakeeme now closed the door of the room, but not before making sure there was no-one else nearby in the corridor. Peorr then demanded to know if he was out of his mind. His colleague told him to calm down and just listen to what he had to say. Lakeeme then began explaining why he was using all this secrecy. He had learned from their planet commander that the recent news message of the destruction of the Saiyan home world by a large comet was false. Instead, Frieza himself had been responsible for the planet's demise. Peorr, although surprised by this reveal, admitted he really did not see the significance of this. Frieza had blown up planets before. Lakeeme continued that he, as a medical assistant, had witnessed the significant increase in power several Saiyans had experienced after they had been healed. If there was one race he knew of that had the potential to one day destroy Frieza, it was them. Peorr, now being alarmed at what he was hearing, told Lakeeme he would be executed if anyone else heard him say that.

Lakeeme told him he was right, but also reminded Peorr that he did not know what it was like to be one of the last of one's kind. Peorr's home planet had been annexed by Frieza, and his race spared because they made good foot soldiers. But Lakeeme's own race had been decimated, since only the mutants of the race had been considered useful to Frieza. The Saiyans had now been exterminated, most likely because Frieza also knew of their potential. Since the Saiyans were now too an endangered species, Lakeeme admitted he felt a kind of kinship towards them. That was why he was planning on finding any surviving Saiyans, and helping them, so that one day they could beat Frieza together. Peorr now dryly asked Lakeeme if he had fallen on his face or something. He continued by pointing out to Lakeeme that the reports indicated only three Saiyans had survived the destruction. One of them was the prince Vegeta, who was practically lord Frieza's pet. It was simply not possible that Lakeeme could help them escape the reach of Frieza. But Lakeeme had something else in mind. He had also heard the rumor that Frieza had been manipulating mission schedules to ensure that most Saiyans would be on the planet at the time of the destruction. The remaining ones who were off planet, and who Frieza did not plan to keep alive, would be killed by his most elite henchmen. Lakeeme was sure that some of them would be sloppy enough to leave a few Saiyans alive without realizing it. His plan was to find those that were left alive, and he needed Peorr's help to find a suitable place to hide them until the time was right.

It turned out that Lakeeme had been correct with his prediction. On a planet that had recently been targeted to be cleared of all its inhabitants, a lone Saiyan warrior named Korat awoke to find himself buried in rubble. With a quick aura burst, he managed to sling the rocks aside and he could see daylight again. He had relatively short hair for a Saiyan. It was pure black and most of it was standing on end. His armor consisted of the standard black configuration with two shoulder plates and three waist plates, which were colored teal. Apart from a few scratches, it was completely intact.

It was a mystery to Korat what had happened to him. The last thing he could remember was that he was fighting alongside his squad in their Great Ape forms. Before that, he had launched a fake moon, a Power Ball into the sky, which had made him and his squad transform. But he was not in the transformed state anymore. He quickly checked to see if he still had his tail. It was still there, so that wasn't the problem. He then searched the sky. There was no ball in sight. That could mean two things. Either several hours had passed and the ball's energy had depleted, or someone had deliberately destroyed it. Korat had a feeling the latter had happened. He didn't see why else he would have no memory of what had happened to him, as he normally could remember everything he did while being transformed. A sudden halt in the source of Blutz Waves was probably what caused this loss of memory. Now, the most important thing he had to do was figure out where the other members of his squad were. After many years of fighting as a common soldier, Korat had recently been appointed as squad leader. This had been his first mission as squad leader, and until now everything had gone relatively smoothly. Now it seemed that something had gone terribly wrong. Korat began to believe that he might not have what it takes to be squad leader. Perhaps the members of the squad had betrayed him and left him for dead. Maybe he had been a bit too uptight with them. It seemed unlikely to him that this was the case, but until he found his squad, he could only guess.

Although most battles that had been fought to annihilate the Saiyan race were over by now, on another planet, one was still going on. The first class warrior Aripa had taken up a mission to conquer a planet with her girl squad. Aripa was a young woman with sharp eyes and spiky hair in an asymmetrical style. She belonged to a noble blood-line that was separate from that of King Vegeta. Her father, who held the title of duke, was the head of her family. Aripa wore a special white and red-violet colored armor piece, with her family crest on the left side of her chest. She now stood face to face with an elite bounty hunter under Frieza's employ. His name was Burter. He had caught her squad off guard, just minutes ago, when he had suddenly appeared on top of a ruined building. They had just reverted back to their normal forms, as the fake moon had depleted, and so they had had no time to recover their strength. Burter had first gone after Melanya and Canra. He had killed Canra first with a punch that had gone straight through her ribcage. Right after that, he had killed Melanya by snapping her neck. He had then insisted that the number of Saiyans he had personally killed was now seventy-one.

Right now, the tall and blue skinned warrior claimed that he was the fastest being in the galaxy, in order to taunt Aripa. However, Aripa had a feeling this wasn't over just yet. Her strength as a first class warrior far surpassed that of her squad members. After giving a quick demonstration of his speed, Burter barely managed a defense as Aripa charged directly at him without a warning. After dodging a few punches, he took the last one squarely in the face. But Aripa backed down as soon as she saw the punch had had no effect at all.

Confident in his ability to finish her off at any time he wanted, Burter began telling her about the reason he attacked her; Frieza intended to get rid of the Saiyan race. Aripa then refuted his statement, claiming that Frieza needed the Saiyans to keep the Planet Trade Organization going, as it was too much for his petty minions Zarbon and Dodoria to handle by themselves. But then Burter revealed that Frieza had a different plan. The entire Saiyan army was to be replaced by a single elite force consisting of only five members. He himself had been offered a position on this team. Aripa refused to believe him. She couldn't, because that would mean that those five members were just as powerful as the bulk of her race. Defeating one of these members by herself would, in that case, be virtually impossible.

Without a warning, Burter vanished right in front of her. His movement was so fast that she could not track it. Before she could respond, he appeared behind her and delivered a powerful kick to her back, which made her armor crack. She stumbled forward for a bit, before regaining her footing. She ignored the pain of multiple broken ribs, and decided to launch a counter-attack. She quickly fired a red energy blast at her enemy. Burter dodged it with ease and then countered with several rapid punches. He finished by slamming her head with his elbow. Aripa was knocked out and fell to the ground. The blue skinned warrior promptly flew up into the air and intended to finish her off with an energy wave volley. He then directed around thirty small energy blasts downwards to Aripa.

When the dust and smoke cleared, her body was gone and Burter commended himself on this easy victory, while striking a pose. He then made his way back to his space pod and promptly left the planet. However, something had happened, which the overconfident Burter hadn't noticed. A figure had leapt from the shadows and had taken Aripa's body just after the first few blasts had hit. It was a humanoid alien with long red hair that was about as tall as Burter. Lakeeme now held Aripa in his arms. He listened carefully and could hear her still breathing. Without wasting time, he flew back to his own ship, and carried her along the way. After attaching her to the life-support system of his two-person ship, he returned to the battlefield to look for more survivors. It wasn't long before he found the dead bodies of two other Saiyan women. He assured himself that despite this, his trip hadn't been for nothing. At least one of the three had survived.

Some time later, he set down his ship onto one of the landing platforms of planet #57. He needed to get her in a recovery tank, but he had to do it without the other base personnel realizing it was in fact a Saiyan that he was carrying. Therefore, he covered her up with a blanket and made sure her tail was not visible. Lakeeme then pretended as if nothing special was going on, while he walked through the numerous corridors of the facility. He explained to one of the guards he encountered that he was taking this wounded soldier to the medical wing. This general explanation appeared to suffice, because he was allowed to go about his business. Once Lakeeme reached the recovery tanks, he chose one of the older models in the back in order not to attract too much attention. He then removed the cracked armor chest piece from her body, and proceeded to remove the rest of her uniform. He supposed it was a good thing she was unconscious, as otherwise she probably would have tried to fight him for this, and thus she would have attracted far too much attention. After opening one of the tanks, he carefully placed her naked body inside, and attached her to the breathing apparatus and other equipment.

Just as he had sealed the tank and initiated the submersion, someone else entered the room, and closed the door again. Lakeeme turned around, and saw that it was Peorr. He looked nervous, and asked Lakeeme to tell him it wasn't a Saiyan in that tank behind him. Lakeeme responded that he had meant what he had said to him earlier. Peorr then looked around, making sure there was no-one in the vicinity, and gave Lakeeme a lecture. If the word got out that a Saiyan was being held here, Frieza would refocus his attention to this world. Once the Saiyan had been retrieved or killed, Frieza would likely force a restructuring of this outpost, or in a worst case scenario, terminate the outpost altogether. In any case, a lot of people would probably be killed, including the both of them. Lakeeme tried to reassure Peorr that he would do all he could to keep that from happening. He planned to take her away once she had been healed. Until then, he would not let anyone discover her.

On the deserted planet that Ullicu and the four other survivors had currently occupied, the mood was grim. Tidane had tried multiple times to contact planet Vegeta, but without any results. Tarnece had then assisted her, revealing in the process that he was somewhat skilled with technology. However, even he hadn't succeeded in getting a connection. This had led both of them to conclude that the only way to know for sure what had happened was to get back there. They now attempted to board their space pods to find out, but Ullicu blocked their path. He told them that he would rather blow up all their pods, than let them leave now to go back to their home planet. Ullicu was sure that Frieza would be expecting such a move. Going back now would just get them all killed. Tidane was frustrated enough to throw a punch at Ullicu, but he blocked it effortlessly, which surprised both Tidane and Tarnece. Ullicu then expressed his belief that all of them couldn't even hope to get past a Saiyan warrior, who had over fifty years of fighting experience.

Without further testing if this statement was true, Tarnece and Tidane decided to walk away from him to join the others. Sorra had been gathering fruits from the nearby forests, and was now roasting them on a fire. Chayandi was lying on the ground, with her eyes closed. Ullicu couldn't remember her having said a single word since they had arrived here. There was something about her calmness that reminded Ullicu of his wife Radesha. He wondered if she would be doing the same thing as Chayandi right now, if she had been here.

Even though Ullicu appeared somewhat calm; he was deeply worried about the future of the Saiyan race. The fact that their homeworld didn't respond could mean numerous things, but if one would also take in account Bardock's warnings and the shockwave, one would deem it very likely the planet was destroyed, or at least rendered lifeless. He could hardly believe that an event like this could have happened in a matter of minutes, while he had spent over fifty years living there. If the five of them were really the only ones left, it would be a very critical situation. Ullicu thought it would take about ten or more highly trained warriors in their Great Ape forms, to ever defeat Frieza. He could only guess because nobody was exactly sure how high Frieza's power level really was. However, he believed there was one certainty: they had to rely on teamwork, since no Saiyan would ever become strong enough to do the job on his or her own. Therefore, the more survivors there were, the bigger the chance was of succeeding in this goal.


	3. The truth

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

**Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have corrected every mistake yet. If there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

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><p><span>Chapter 3: The truth<span>

The group of five Saiyans led by Ullicu had now been on the deserted planet for about half a day. Ullicu had been sitting near the craters of the space pods for hours, guarding them from being used. The others were not sure what they were accomplishing by staying here, although Tidane and Tarnece were the only ones that stated it out loud. The two of them were now sitting around the fire that Sorra had made, while just talking about whatever was on their minds. Meanwhile, Sorra had returned to the forest to hunt for more food. The fifth member of the group, Chayandi, had gone off to explore the planet.

Ullicu was now sitting with his eyes closed, and his arms crossed. He was in a trance, trying to come up with a solid plan on what to do next. His concentration was disrupted when he heard someone walking towards him. Whoever it was, the person seemed to make no effort to sneak past him. Ullicu opened his eyes and could see Tidane approaching him. When she was about several meters away, she sat down on the ground in front of him and stared at him for a moment. It seemed like she was trying to suppress her frustration and confusion. Ullicu simply stared back at her with a slight frown, and didn't say a word to her. She then started talking. Tidane wanted to know what they were doing here, and what the plan was. Surprisingly, Ullicu responded immediately and without changing the subject. He revealed that his plan was to wait for at least an entire day so that Frieza's attention would surely have moved to something other than their homeworld or what remained of it. After that, the five of them should focus on finding as many survivors as they could. Subsequently, they needed to bring them all together so that a long-term plan could be made. Tidane reminded him that they also still needed to have proof of what had happened exactly. Ullicu agreed with her, but he still believed it was a bad idea to go back to planet Vegeta. He thought it would be less risky to tap into the Planet Trade Organization's network from some remote location, and find out if there was any news about the planet. Also, it would be useful if they could set up something to receive all messages that were being sent to planet Vegeta's channel. This way they might be able to come into contact with other members of their race that had survived or escaped Frieza's attack.

After her conversation with Ullicu, Tidane went to Tarnece to discuss the plan. Tarnece had watched Ullicu and her from afar. He didn't like it one bit that she had decided to go talk with the, in his view, crazy old man. The first thing he said when she got back was that he was going to challenge Ullicu for control of the space pods. Tidane tried to hide her grin by pretending to wipe her mouth, but Tarnece saw right through it. He became agitated by her lack of confidence in him. Tidane simply shook her head, and wondered out loud how many opponents Tarnece had faced in battle, since he obviously found it difficult to assess his planned next one. It was quite clear to her that Tarnece would not stand a chance against Ullicu. Tarnece now stood up, raised his fist and shouted that he didn't need her advice. But before he could head off to face Ullicu, Tidane told him to calm down and listen to what she had to say.

When Tidane had finished explaining the plan to Tarnece, his anger seemed to have disappeared. Just like Tidane and the others, Tarnece had a burning desire to know what had really happened to their home world. He began thinking about the possibilities of a receiver to intercept all messages intended for planet Vegeta. There was no way he could make something like that on this planet, so he had to go somewhere else. If he could find a place with the necessary equipment, then he might also be able to communicate with the long distance satellites of planet Vegeta and get visual confirmation of the state of the planet. If Ullicu wanted a receiver, then he had to agree to let him leave the planet. So perhaps he didn't need to fight him after all.

A short while later, Tarnece and Tidane went back to Ullicu. Tarnece then explained what he thought was required to realize the kind of receiver they needed. Ullicu was of the opinion that letting him leave was the only viable option they had. He himself knew almost nothing about technology, but it made sense to him that more specialized equipment was needed for such a long range connection. And without an ability to get into contact with others of their race, they wouldn't be getting anywhere. He agreed to let Tarnece leave, on the condition that his mother would go with him. Ullicu didn't know Sorra that well, but he was sure that she would not allow her son to do anything stupid that would put them all at risk. So before Tarnece could leave, he had to wait until his mother had returned from the forest. Tarnece simply looked in disbelief at Ullicu when he heard him say this.

Meanwhile, Chayandi was returning from her trip to explore the planet. Without her scouter, she didn't know exactly where the others were. However, she had memorized the direct surroundings of the camp, and remembered the route she had taken. On her trip, she hadn't found anything that had caught her interest. There were mostly deserts, plains, and forests, with the occasional lake with dirty water. She was now approaching the camp from a different angle and soon heard something that did catch her attention. It sounded like flowing water. Chayandi then found a river, which led her to a waterfall and a small lake. The water was crystal clear. This magnificent find lightened up the expression of slight disappointment she had on her face. She quickly flew down and drank a few mouthfuls of water from the fall. Then, she wanted to dive right in, but stopped herself, reasoning that the others deserved to know about this too. That was why she quickly resumed her return trip to the camp.

Once there, Chayandi cheerfully announced her discovery and asked them all to go for a swim with her. Tidane declined almost immediately, saying she wasn't in the mood. Ullicu politely told Chayandi that he would join another time. Chayandi then grabbed Tarnece's hand and playfully tried to pull him with her. He was slightly overwhelmed by her attempt to completely change a serious mood into a happy one, but he allowed himself be lead away by her.

Not long after, they arrived at the waterfall. Tarnece was awed by the small paradise Chayandi had found, but he was even more awed by her. He hadn't really paid attention to her until right now. She looked much prettier when she was cheerful. Maybe the bright surroundings had something to do with it as well. Tarnece also noticed that she didn't have her tail wrapped around her waist, which was the norm for soldiers in the Saiyan army. Instead, she used it to express her mood. Right now, she was moving it in a calming pattern. While sunken in his thoughts, Tarnece didn't say anything, and stared vaguely in the direction of Chayandi, until she asked him if he still wanted to go for a swim. This made him snap back to reality. After briefly struggling to find the right words, he simply nodded. He then lifted the chest piece of his armor over his head and threw it down. While still berating himself in his mind for acting like a fool, he kneeled near the edge of the lake and splashed some water in his face. Chayandi was watching him silently, with her eyes fixated on his muscular bare chest and back. She then made a deliberately nonchalant remark that maybe he should take off everything, because they didn't have spare sets of dry uniforms. Tarnece decided to play along, and asked her if she was going to follow her own advice then. Her answer was that she always did.

Tarnece was about to follow her advice, when he heard a loud, shrill scream that made him cringe. It was Sorra, his mother, who was approaching the waterfall, and who was screaming his name in anger. He responded in an equally agitated voice that he was busy right now. His mother yelled back that the others had told her about the plan, and added that she had no clue about what was going on in that big head of his. They had important work to do; there was no time to run off to hide from one's mother. Tarnece, being annoyed and embarrassed about his mother's wrong guess of his actual intentions, told Chayandi that his mother was plain crazy. Meanwhile, Sorra approached her son, and while he was still facing Chayandi, grabbed him by his ear. Tarnece shouted out in pain, but he was unable to stop his mother, who now pulled him by his ear away from the waterfall. Unless he wanted to lose his ear, Tarnece had no choice but to walk away with her. While leading her son away, Sorra also took the armor he had thrown on the ground. The entire time, she didn't even look at Chayandi, let alone say anything to her. Chayandi was now left behind, surprised and disappointed by what had just happened. As he was being led away, Tarnece managed to catch a glimpse of Chayandi simply staring back at him with a sad look on her face.

Back at the camp, Ullicu had already prepared two of the space pods for departure. He then warned Tarnece and Sorra to stay away from their home planet and any PTO controlled planets and reminded them of what could happen if they ignored those warnings. Sorra reassured Ullicu that she had it under control. Tarnece had his arms crossed and didn't say a word to either of them. Tarnece and Sorra then boarded the pods, and soon they had left the atmosphere.

Within a few short hours, they managed to find a suitable location, without passing through PTO controlled space. The computer of Sorra's pod had located a trading outpost on a planet that was not associated with the PTO. After having landed, it immediately became clear to them that the planet was abandoned and in ruins. Whatever alien race had once inhabited it, all of them were gone. The air quality of the planet was very bad, with a lot of dust. They could see great fires in the distance. Sorra guessed that some kind of environmental disaster had taken place here. Tarnece simply shrugged and told her it wasn't their concern, as long as the trading outpost was still intact.

The computer had given them the exact coordinates, so locating the outpost was not that hard without their scouters. After flying a short distance from the landing site of the pods, they found a large set of metal doors in the side of a mountain. Tarnece charged an energy attack in one hand and released it after a few seconds. The yellow wave of energy punched a hole through the doors that was big enough for them to pass through. Sorra complimented him, saying that she couldn't have done it better herself, but Tarnece simply ignored her. The two Saiyans then entered the mountain complex. It was dark inside, so Sorra created a small white ball of energy, and held it in the palm of her hand. The ball emitted enough light for them to see that the interior was mostly undamaged. However, there was no-one here, not even a corpse. It wasn't long before they found the main communications room. Tarnece quickly examined the equipment in the room, and concluded that it had been built according to the galactic standard. If it had been custom alien technology, it would have taken him additional time to understand how it worked. Luckily this wasn't the case, and Tarnece soon found the main switch that turned the power of the complex back on. After activating it, the lights and equipment promptly came back to life.

Both Sorra and Tarnece were now getting a little anxious about what they were going to find out once the equipment was working. Sorra was pacing up and down in the room, while Tarnece configured the equipment. He had once memorized the frequencies and codes of their home planet's communication satellites, and thus was able to connect to them. All he had to do now was to wait for the visual data to be received. This was the moment the truth would finally be revealed. Tarnece wasn't sure what he believed had happened, but the data would soon confirm it. Sorra had now stopped pacing and was simply staring at the large screen in front of Tarnece. The first image that popped up displayed a vast black nothingness. Only stars were visible. Tarnece checked if the viewing angle was correct, and quickly realized that there was no doubt about it. He then checked the other satellites. Only two others, out of a total of ten still responded. But they gave him practically the same image.

It immediately felt like a really bad nightmare. The world, on which he had been born and raised, was literally gone. He turned to face his mother, and admitted that their home planet had been destroyed. Sorra was perhaps even more shocked then her son. She let her tail slide loose from its place wrapped around her waist, and let it hang in between her legs. Then, she quietly hugged her son, and sobbed on his shoulder. However, Tarnece felt sad for only a moment. The fact that their planet was gone didn't mean it was over. The Saiyan race wasn't dead yet. Frieza had failed to annihilate them all. With a little luck they would find even more survivors. After all, they were a race of space warriors. There was more required than a single planet exploding to wipe them out. They would survive this crisis and face Frieza when the time was right. Then they would avenge their race together. Tarnece now had the perfect picture of this in his mind. He felt proud to be one of those who could one day make it a reality.

When his mother had finally let go of him, Tarnece continued with the plan. He intended to set up a receiver to intercept all communication to the frequency of their former home world. Also, he wanted to record an automated response that would instruct Saiyans who tried to contact planet Vegeta to go to the group's new base of operations. But he didn't want Frieza and the PTO to be able to understand the message, in case they would stumble upon it. That was why he decided to record it in the ancient Saiyan language. When he was finished setting up everything, he considered the first step towards avenging their race to be completed.


	4. Regroup

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

**Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have corrected every mistake yet. If there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

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><p><span>Chapter 4: Regroup<span>

On planet #57 in Frieza's empire, in the medical wing, Lakeeme was carefully monitoring the healing process of the Saiyan he had saved. It had taken quite some effort from him and Peorr in order to keep anyone else from getting too close to the recovery tank she was in. Lakeeme supposed it was a good thing the Saiyan was almost completely healed. Soon, the screen indicated that she was now fully conscious. Lakeeme then saw her open her eyes and turn her head to look at him. To Lakeeme, Aripa looked surprised to be alive. She placed her hands on the glass, almost as if she was confused. This was an indication to Lakeeme that she had been in there long enough. He promptly initiated the draining sequence, and when it was done, the tank opened up. Aripa quickly removed all the wires attached to her body and stepped out of the tank. Almost immediately, she grabbed the collar of Lakeeme's armor and demanded to know where her regular doctor was. Lakeeme told her that she wasn't on her home planet, but on planet #57 of Frieza. Aripa then let go of his collar, and demanded he bring her a towel and a new set of armor. Lakeeme pointed his finger at a table across the room where there was a towel. However, Aripa wasn't satisfied with this answer. She ordered him to bring it to her at once. This made Lakeeme state that he wasn't a butler, nor did he intend to become one. Aripa turned her back on him and snarled that she would have him executed for his incompetence.

At that moment, Aripa remembered what had happened to her. That insolent pig named Burter had killed her squad, and had nearly killed her as well. Also, she remembered that he had said that Frieza wanted to get rid of the Saiyan race. This was something she wasn't going to allow. Aripa snarled at Lakeeme that if he wasn't going to give her any armor, she would just have to go like this. She then walked away from him, towards the exit of the room. Lakeeme tried to think fast about how he was going to stop her. When Aripa opened the door, she stood face to face with Peorr. Peorr, being an alien with octopus-like characteristics, turned his head away in disgust, and told her to put on some clothes. Aripa couldn't believe what she was hearing. No-one had ever insulted her like that. It made her explode with anger. Without a warning, she elbowed Peorr in the stomach, which caused him to fall to the ground in agony. She then grabbed him by the ankle, and threw him straight at Lakeeme, knocking the latter to the ground. While they were distracted, she opened a locker and quickly pulled on a new uniform. She subsequently stepped into the main corridor and disappeared out of the view of Lakeeme, who was now rummaging through the medical supplies to find something to sedate her with.

It didn't take long before someone else ran into Aripa. A couple of security guards equipped with arm cannons found her and attempted to stop her, but they were quickly killed by a powerful red energy blast that Aripa launched at them. She then launched another blast that created a large hole in one of the walls. The impact of this blast caused the entire building to shake, thus alerting all personnel. On the other side of the destroyed wall, there was a storage room of the training center. The blast interrupted the stasis of three fully grown Saibamen, and soon the small green creatures jumped out of the hole out of curiosity. Aripa immediately commanded them to head out and attack every PTO soldier they encountered. The Saibamen, being conditioned to follow orders, did as she commanded without question. Just when she wanted to continue her rampage, she felt a sharp sting in the side of her neck. She turned her head, and could see that it was Lakeeme, who had just injected her with something. The effects of the injection were not immediate, and Aripa managed to clamp both her hands around Lakeeme's neck. Her attempt to choke him, however, was short lived, as the sedative began to take its effect. Soon, she was unconscious again. Just when Lakeeme was thinking about how to talk his way out of this mess, Peorr approached them. He was still clutching his stomach; it looked like he was in pain. He now growled at Lakeeme that if he didn't have a plan to explain this to the rest of the base personnel, he would no longer put his life on the line for him. Lakeeme revealed that he did have a plan: blame it on the Saibamen. He was sure he could come up with a story involving rogue Saibamen killing a few guards and wreaking havoc. Without wasting further time, Lakeeme threw Aripa onto Peorr's shoulder, and told his colleague to find a place to hide her. In the meantime, he would attempt to find and fight the Saibamen, and pretend as if they had escaped on their own.

Soon, Peorr had hidden the unconscious Aripa in a maintenance closet. He was just in time, as a few seconds later a squad of around fifteen guards appeared, and they demanded to know what had happened. Peorr decided to go along with Lakeeme's plan, and told them that several Saibamen had gone rogue. He also offered to go with them. Peorr and the guards ran down several corridors, until they found Lakeeme, who had just taken down a Saibaman with a kick to the head. Lakeeme informed them that he had defeated two of the creatures. The third one was still on the loose. The commander of the guards told him that his squad would take it from here. He then commanded his men to split into three groups and find the last Saibaman. It didn't take long for all guards to have disappeared, leaving only Lakeeme, Peorr, and a defeated Saibaman in the corridor. Peorr calmly shook his head in a disapproving manner, and lectured Lakeeme that someday, he might realize that it was pointless to have gone through all this trouble to save a simple Saiyan. But Lakeeme insisted that Peorr was wrong.

Far away from Frieza's empire, a lone Saiyan warrior was searching for his squad. Korat had lost his scouter, so he had no way of communicating with anybody. Without the scouter, he was also unable to orient himself. The surface of the planet he was on was one big wasteland littered with rubble. No matter where he looked, every native creature was dead. The job seemed to have been done extremely well, but the members of his squad were nowhere to be seen. When he would find their landing site, then he would at least know if the space pods were still here. If that was the case, and if the squad wouldn't be in that location, he could use his pod's computer to scan the planet to find them. While he was trying to find his way back, he continued to think about what could have happened here. Korat was certain the local warriors weren't responsible for destroying the fake moon and knocking him out. Earlier, he had witnessed that they could barely manage to gather enough energy to fire a simple energy blast. Thus it seemed to him a third party was almost certainly involved.

Several hours later, Korat could see the craters of the landing site. All six pods appeared to be still there, and intact. For a moment, he thought that maybe his squad was waiting for him to return. But the slight smile on Korat's face quickly turned into an expression of shock. Mustrad, a member of his squad, was lying face down near one of the craters. Without wasting a second, Korat rushed towards him. Mustrad had a large hole visible in his back. When Korat checked to see if he still had a pulse, he realized that his team member had been dead for some time, as his body was already cold. Korat attempted to keep a cool head, but the anger he felt made him lose his composure. He shouted out loud towards the sky that those who were responsible for this would someday pay with their lives. Then, as a final honor, Korat fired an energy blast that completely incinerated and disintegrated the body of the fallen warrior, sparing him the process of decomposing. Korat then proceeded towards his space pod and used the computer to scan the planet for any possible survivors.

However, the computer could not find a single significant power level on the planet. Also, there were no readings for the local populace. After finding Mustrad dead, it didn't surprise Korat that the rest of the squad was probably dead as well. Korat took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. Most of his squad was now missing in action, with one member confirmed to be killed in action. He himself was the only known survivor. Therefore, he had to return to planet Vegeta as soon as possible to report on the mission. He did not have the time to go and find the bodies of the others. Once back, he had to explain all of this to commander Nappa, only he didn't quite know how to do it. Korat believed that he had failed to die besides his men and so he had turned his back on them. His commander would very likely share this view. But there was more to the story than that, because his squad had in no way been helpless without him. Whatever had taken them out had done so unexpectedly and overwhelmingly. Korat could therefore justify his return: he had to help organize an investigation and a counterattack.

Korat then boarded his pod, closed the door, and instructed the computer to leave the planet without the other pods. Once he had left the atmosphere, he attempted to contact planet Vegeta. However, instead of hearing someone responding directly to his message, he heard someone talking in the ancient Saiyan language. It didn't take long for him to figure out it was a message playing in an endless loop. According to the message, all Saiyans were expected gather on the planet XG-334 for a special assignment. Korat was surprised by this new development, as he did not think this day could get any more unusual. Maybe this new assignment had something to do with what had happened to his squad. Korat supposed it was best to just follow this order and see how things would play out. He typed in the new coordinates and activated the hibernation system shortly thereafter.

In the meantime, Tarnece and Sorra had returned to the deserted planet that was designated XG-334. They had revealed the fate of their home world to Ullicu, Tidane, and Chayandi. Both Ullicu and Tidane had already considered that the planet could have been completely destroyed. Ullicu was nonetheless shocked to actually have confirmation. He didn't know what to say for a moment. The same was true for Chayandi, who was completely silent and slightly blue in the face. She looked like she might collapse. The one who finally interrupted the silence was Tidane, who told them that they should forget about the past. According to her, they should now focus on finding out if there were any survivors besides their group. When she was done, Tarnece continued, revealing that he had set up a repeating message that redirected anyone who contacted planet Vegeta to this planet instead. So that left them with two options: wait for any survivors to show up, or go out into space and look for them. Tidane preferred the second idea. She didn't want to waste any more time sitting around, doing nothing useful. According to her, they should split up their group. Two of them should stay here, and the other three should head out into space. While Tidane, Tarnece and Sorra were in discussion, Ullicu helped the shocked Chayandi to sit down, and comforted her. Then, Ullicu stood up and halted the discussion by raising his voice, saying that they would do no such thing.

This statement angered Tidane, who revealed that she had never thought Ullicu was such a stubborn old geezer. She continued that she didn't know why she had ever put her trust in him, since he seemed to want to block their path every time. After hearing this, Ullicu wanted to slap some sense into her, but he refrained from doing so. Instead, he remained calm and told her that she should respect the judgment of someone who was nearly three times her age, especially someone who had witnessed Frieza's power first-hand. Without saying another word, Tidane turned her back on him and promptly flew away from the group. Just before she had turned around, Ullicu had noticed a tear running down her cheek, although Tidane had tried her best to hide it.

A few hours later, a space pod appeared in the atmosphere of planet XG-334. Inside the pod was Korat. He had instructed the computer of his ship to bring him to the largest source of power on the planet, which had led him on a course through the atmosphere. After the pod touched down on the surface, Ullicu was the first one to approach the crater. When Korat exited the pod, he saw a man standing near the edge of the crater. It was an older, balding man, who was wearing a black and orange variant of the PTO armor. The man also had his tail wrapped around his waist, and so Korat knew he had come to the right place. Korat proceeded to politely ask Ullicu if he would be so kind as to reveal what the special assignment actually was. Ullicu simply gestured for him to come out of the crater. Korat then quietly levitated out of the crater and landed in front of Ullicu a few seconds later. He was a bit taller than Ullicu, but not as broad. The first thing Ullicu said was that he had a feeling he was in the presence of a great warrior. Unfortunately, it wasn't great enough; not for what they were now facing. Korat frowned and asked what he meant. This prompted Ullicu to point at the sky. There was another space pod approaching. He would explain the whole situation once that person had landed.

After the second pod had touched down, Ullicu and Korat flew towards the crater. Once Ullicu could see who was inside, he stopped in mid-air. Korat stopped a few seconds later, not knowing what Ullicu was doing. The person that had arrived was not a Saiyan, but a green-skinned fish-faced soldier wearing white and grey PTO armor and a red colored scouter. The soldier promptly began laughing when he saw the two of them. He then revealed that lord Frieza would be most pleased if this last hive of Saiyans was wiped out as well. The soldier subsequently launched himself into the air and charged straight at Korat with his fists ready.


	5. The purge continues

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

**Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have corrected every mistake yet. If there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

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><p><span>Chapter 5: The purge continues<span>

Korat only had a fraction of a second to respond to the sudden and unexpected attack of the fish-faced soldier. He managed to block the first and second punches, but the soldier was so fast that he was unable to keep up. The soldier managed to land several punches on Korat's chest and face, before he sent him flying with a powerful kick. As Korat was falling to the ground, he could see Ullicu attacking the soldier with multiple rapid punches and kicks. It was no use however: the soldier blocked them effortlessly, and subsequently retaliated. It didn´t take long before Ullicu was falling to the ground as well.

While he was still floating above them, the soldier burst out into laughter once again. This time it sounded a lot more sadistic. After both Ullicu and Korat had landed, the soldier used his scouter to scan them. While scanning Korat, he mentioned the power level 2400, and while scanning Ullicu, he mentioned 5500. The second reading surprised him a bit, although he boasted that it was still nothing compared to his own power. While he was deciding how to finish off the two downed Saiyans, two others appeared right in front of him. They consisted of Tidane and Sorra, who had both quickly realized that a fight was going on. It appeared they had discussed their tactics, as the two of them attacked the soldier together.

Having already thought of a plan, Ullicu went over to Korat and told him to join the fight to keep the soldier busy. In the meantime, he would prepare a special technique that would most likely defeat the intruder, as long as his power level wasn´t over 15000. Korat was unsure what Ullicu was going to attempt, but he trusted him and followed the order nonetheless. Ullicu then began preparing his technique. He assumed a stable stance, clenched his hands into fists and began channeling his energy. While it was three against one, the fish-faced soldier appeared to have his hands full. Despite this however, he still noticed that Ullicu was preparing something. The soldier tried to gain the advantage again by launching a blue sphere of energy that pushed Sorra away from him. Not long after, the ball exploded in mid-air, creating a lot of smoke and uncertainty over Sorra's fate. Because Korat and Tidane slightly averted their attention away from him, the soldier managed to punch Korat down and grab hold of Tidane in a Full-Nelson grip.

Whatever the soldier had planned to do, he did not get the chance for it, as he was immediately hit in the head with a roundhouse kick delivered by Tarnece. The soldier was caught off-guard by this move, and Tidane managed to break free from his grip. It seemed he had underestimated the size of this 'hive' of Saiyans. Nevertheless, the soldier did not appear to be damaged at all by Tarnece's attack. He became slightly agitated and intended to launch a counter-attack against Tarnece, but his intended target had disappeared. Several seconds later, the soldier had found him again, using his scouter. Tarnece was standing on the ground looking straight at the soldier. Standing beside him were Tidane, Korat, and Sorra. The latter had managed to evade most of the effects of the exploding blue ball of energy.

During the fighting, Korat had made a brief analysis of their enemy. The soldier was stronger and faster than most Saiyans were, but he was definitely a case of someone who was overly reliant on his scouter. Korat estimated that the power level of their enemy was probably near 15000, right around the level where Ullicu's attack would no longer be effective. However, they were dealing with estimates here, so the attack might still work. In any case, the soldier seemed to have an advantage in the air, so Korat had decided to move the fight to the ground.

The soldier now used his scouter again to check all their power levels. Sorra was at 2500, Tidane was at 1500, and Tarnece was at 1200. The level of Korat had decreased slightly to 2300. During his scan, the soldier also picked up a power level of around 900, which was quite a distance away from the battlefield. But then he picked up something else. The power level of Ullicu, who was standing about a hundred meters behind the rest, was rapidly fluctuating. The soldier could not get an accurate reading of his power, and this fact appeared to agitate him further. He flew to the ground with a surprising speed, and shouted that it was time to end this little game. Just when he was about to charge an energy blast with the intention of launching it at Ullicu, the rest stepped in to stop him.

Ullicu had been carefully watching the battle while he had been preparing his attack. His right fist had begun glowing bright white and it had started emitting electrical sparks. When the right opening finally presented itself, he leapt forward while roaring at the top of his lungs. Right now, there was no-one in between Ullicu and the soldier. The latter realized the exact same thing, only a bit too late. Ullicu's fist hit the stomach section of the soldier's armor with a tremendous force. The armor shattered upon impact, and the fist continued its way through the soldier's stomach. Ullicu then opened his fist and firmly gripped the spine of the soldier from the inside. Subsequently, he fired twin eye beams that destroyed the soldier's scouter.

Both Ullicu and the soldier were now standing still on the ground. The soldier was coughing up blood and was unable to do anything to get out of the situation. Ullicu wasted no time and began interrogating. First of all, he wanted to know if anyone else knew he was here. The soldier managed to speak and told him that all missions were registered, so yes, everyone knew he was here. The second thing Ullicu demanded to know was who else knew there was a group of Saiyans here. This time, the soldier did not give a straight answer. Instead, he told Ullicu that it didn't matter. Sooner or later Frieza would find out what had happened here and track them all down. There was not a place in the universe where they could hide. The purge of the Saiyans would continue. The soldier finished his short speech by declaring that dying was all the Saiyans could do for Frieza. This prompted Ullicu to declare that someone else would die first and he gave the soldier one guess as to who that was going to be.

The others had been watching as Ullicu interrogated the enemy. When Ullicu finished him off, he did it in such a way that it caused a bloodcurdling scream to issue from the soldier. All the others were surprised that the battle had ended so quickly. Even more so, they were surprised at how it had happened, and who had been responsible for it. Ullicu then turned to the group. Korat immediately noticed something strange about him. He was out of breath, and he had dark circles around his eyes. It was as if he had literally put all the energy he had into that one punch. Ullicu told the group to find Chayandi and gather at the space pods: they were going to leave the planet right away. Tidane had noticed Ullicu's state as well, and she asked him if he was alright. This led Ullicu to reveal that he had done that move a few times before. He was going to be fine, but he wouldn't be in any condition to fight for the next few days.

About ten minutes later, all six were standing near the space pod craters. Since the PTO had found their base, Ullicu reasoned that more soldiers would follow on short notice. That was why they had to discard this planet. Right now, they had to find another suitable planet, preferably one with a stronger gravity than that of planet Vegeta. Also, Ullicu pointed out that perhaps it was too dangerous to have the automated response refer to the planet they were occupying. He deemed it unlikely that the fish-faced soldier had translated their message. It was more probable that he had been tracking Korat's space pod. Nevertheless, refraining from mentioning their direct location in the message would be safer in case the PTO managed to learn the ancient Saiyan language.

This time, no-one attempted to argue with him about the plan. Ullicu didn't know whether it was because the group had been overwhelmed by the strength of the soldier, or because he had defeated the enemy seemingly so easily. In any case, he was far too tired to deal with any more disagreements in the group. It was time to find themselves a new planet. Ullicu used the computer of his space pod to begin searching for one. It was then that Korat quietly approached him and asked what he had missed. From what had just happened, Korat had concluded that Frieza had become their enemy, and was apparently hunting down Saiyans. What he didn't get was why there were so few of them on this planet. This remark made Ullicu bluntly state that planet Vegeta had been completely destroyed. The six of them were the only survivors as far as they could tell. Korat's eyes widened when he heard this. He immediately declared that there had to be more survivors out there. He refused to believe they were the only ones of a race of space warriors to survive a massacre like that.

Korat then announced that he did not plan to go with the group, because he did not think he would be any use to them in this way. He believed that many Saiyans could have survived under differing circumstances. Frieza's purge may not have reached as far as the entire galaxy. For example, there might be Saiyan infants out there who had been overlooked. Korat insisted that someone had to go out there and find them, while the others would train themselves and come up with a strategy that would ultimately defeat Frieza. Ullicu agreed with the latter part of the plan, but wasn't so sure about the former part. The chance of finding anyone without a proper lead was very slim. Ullicu realized that it wasn't farfetched to think that some infants were indeed still alive. However, once an infant landed on a planet, it would be difficult to track down by anyone because of the low power level. Nevertheless, Ullicu decided not to try and convince Korat to let it go. He seemed far too determined to be persuaded. Korat then asked Ullicu to give him the name of the planet as soon as he had found one. That way he and any possible others could one day rejoin the group. Korat quickly added that he would rather die than reveal the location to the enemy in case he was ever captured. Ullicu sighed, but nonetheless agreed to tell him.

Just when Ullicu thought the conversation was over, Tidane said that she wanted to go as well. Even before Ullicu could say no, Korat told her that he would be working alone. He had already made up his mind about it. That was the way it had to be. But Tidane didn't give up that easily. She told Korat that she was certain he could use someone to watch his back, because he didn't know what he would encounter out there. However, Korat had a different reasoning. If he would be cornered or ambushed during his search, it would be he alone who would die, and no-one else's life would be wasted. Korat then put his hand on Tidane's shoulder, and told her that she should take care of herself and the group. He continued that he had learned a lot today. He would utilize the time he would spend traveling in order to train his mind. That way he might someday be able to do what Ullicu had done today: channel his life energy into an attack to overpower a stronger enemy.

Within a short while, a new suitable planet had been found, and the six space pods departed the planet XG-334. The pod of Korat soon broke formation and began heading towards a different part of the galaxy. As a former squad leader, Korat had once seen a PTO list of low priority targets. There had been about twenty planets on the list, most of which were populated by relatively weak inhabitants. He still remembered a few names of the list, and therefore those planets were a good place to start looking.

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	6. Three journeys

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

**Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have corrected every mistake yet. If there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

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><p><span>Chapter 6: Three journeys<span>

Aripa opened her eyes and could see a dark blue sky with various stars visible. She could feel that she was lying on her back on a sandy ground. Also, it appeared she had a bad head-ache, as if she hadn't eaten in quite a while. It was unknown to her how she had ended up in this place. When she sat up, she realized that she was in some kind of desert. Suddenly, she could hear someone talking to her. After looking around, she saw a face she recognized. It was the face of a humanoid alien with red hair; the same face she had seen when she had last awoken in a recovery tank. When Aripa realized where she had seen the face before, she recalled what had happened. She had been going on a rampage and this insolent fool had injected her with something that made her pass out.

Lakeeme told her to take it easy, and insisted that he had done what had to be done in order to keep her safe. As he was speaking, he could see the anger beginning to boil up in Aripa. Her face became red, and her facial muscles began to twitch. It wasn't long before she began berating him for drugging and abducting her. She continued by threatening that her father, the great Duke Aubergu, would have Lakeeme's severed head on a pike if he found out about this. Lakeeme was not impressed by this statement, and bluntly stated that her father was dead. He had been killed by Frieza, along with the entire Saiyan race and their planet. Aripa did not believe a single word he was saying. She knew that Frieza wanted to get rid of the Saiyan race, but she was sure it wouldn't be an easy task for him and his henchmen. When Aripa revealed these thoughts to Lakeeme, the latter tossed a report card in her direction. While still sitting on the ground, Aripa caught it, and quickly examined it. The report said that a large comet had struck and destroyed the Saiyan home world Vegeta. There were only three survivors: Prince Vegeta, Commander Nappa, and the soldier Raditz. All three were male, thus the Saiyan race was no longer able to procreate. The report had been signed by Zarbon, right-hand man of Frieza, and was an official and authentic copy that could only have been printed by the Planet Trade Organization.

After reading the report, Aripa did not become any less angry. She attempted to stand up, but quickly became dizzy. Her legs also felt very weak. Lakeeme noticed this, and explained that those were the aftereffects of the serum he had given her. In response, Aripa fired a red energy blast at Lakeeme. However, it wasn't very fast nor aimed particularly well, so Lakeeme only needed to step aside in order to avoid it. It then flew for about a hundred meters, before touching the ground and exploding. Aripa did not try a second time. She had now loosened her tail from its place around her waist, and was using it to help her balance herself. Lakeeme carefully approached her, intending help her, but she snarled at him to stay away. That was why he gave her a moment to realize that her condition would not wear off any time soon.

When Aripa had calmed down a bit, she demanded to know why he had told her a different version of what had happened compared to the one in the report. Lakeeme decided to reveal the whole truth in an attempt to gain her sympathy. He told her that he belonged to a species that had almost completely been wiped out by Frieza. The remaining individuals had all been assigned various jobs in the organization of the PTO. Lakeeme had never liked this situation, but he had been forced to accept it, because it had been the only way for him to survive. This exact same thing was going to happen to the surviving Saiyans. Both species were now in the same situation. However, if they could keep Aripa's survival a secret from Frieza, then they would be able to create an advantage. Lakeeme revealed that he had personally witnessed the increase in power that Saiyans experience after recovering from serious wounds. Even Aripa's own power level had increased from 2800 to 3600 after she had been healed. This was the reason he had risked his life to save hers. He then expressed his belief that if the mutants of his own race and the surviving Saiyans worked together, they might one day be able to defeat Frieza and avenge both races. So that was why he had told her the truth about what had happened to her planet. The version in the report was merely a cover-up story intended to fool everyone except those who knew better.

Lakeeme's monologue actually managed to silence Aripa for a few seconds. She didn't know for sure if she believed everything he had just told her. For a moment, she thought about his suggestion of the two of them working together; it sounded ridiculous to her. After a few more seconds of silence, Aripa asked Lakeeme if he now expected her to fall for him, after having saved her life and explaining his 'noble' reason. Lakeeme wanted to tell her that she was wrong about that, but stopped talking when Aripa slowly approached him. She was still a bit dizzy, but managed to walk firmly, and only stopped when her face was a few centimeters away from Lakeeme's face. Just when Lakeeme was wondering what was going on, she slapped him so hard that he hoped no one would notice the handprint on his face when he would return to base.

Aripa then faced away from him, and stated that despite the fact that he was an asshole, she understood what he was trying to tell her. To Lakeeme's surprise, she suddenly announced that she wanted to leave the PTO territory immediately, because lying low wasn't her style. She then barked at Lakeeme to get a ship ready for her at once.

Several months later, on the planet XZ-457, five identical space pods had just landed. This planet was much like the first one the group of Saiyans had occupied: abandoned without any trace of civilization. This one had an orange sky and more swamps than deserts. The gravity was also stronger, which would only be beneficial for them to build up strength. Even though quite some time has passed since they had started their journey, to them it only seemed to be several hours. They had spent most of the time in the hibernation state. On the way, they had made only one stop: when Tarnece had adjusted the repeating message he had recorded. He had changed it so that it redirected any Saiyans who would pick it up to XZ-462, a planet not far the one they were currently on. The plan was that every once in a while, someone of their group would go to this planet and pick up anyone who might have decided to follow the instructions in the message. In the unlikely case the PTO would have set up a trap then at least they would catch only one member of the group instead of everyone.

Soon, all five Saiyans had exited the space pods and began exploring the planet. Ullicu, Sorra and Chayandi decided to stay near the pods and build up their camp. Tarnece and Tidane went out to hunt for fresh meat. When the latter two returned, a campfire was already burning. Tarnece had a boar-like creature slung over his shoulders that would be enough food for today. While the meat was being roasted, Tidane took notice of Chayandi, who was sitting on the ground, tail free from her waist, looking cheerfully at Tarnece. Tarnece was struggling to keep his mother Sorra at bay, because she wanted to clean up his slightly dirt smudged face, which he insisted he could do himself. Ullicu was half sitting, half lying on the ground, while gnawing on some grass and laughing at the scene that was taking place in front of him. He was still visibly exhausted from the attack he had performed, but he seemed to be ignoring it. Tidane felt the need to chide the person that irritated her the most. Thus she began chiding Chayandi for having her tail loose like that, calling it inappropriate and undisciplined. Everyone suddenly fell silent and the mood was immediately killed. Chayandi looked slightly shocked, and didn't dare to say anything. Sorra defended her, stating that there was nothing wrong with having your tail loose, since they were no longer in the army, nor were they meeting the King. Tarnece responded by telling Tidane that he didn't know that she was one of those uptight types. Ullicu simply frowned. Tidane looked back and forth between each of them and finally stood up with a sigh and left without saying a further word.

A few minutes later, when they could begin eating, the subject changed to Korat and the fact that he had departed as suddenly as he had arrived. Ullicu believed that Korat was the right person to be out there and search for more survivors of their race. The only question was if he would find what he was looking for. Chayandi revealed to the group that she found him very brave and selfless. Tarnece didn't see what was so great about Korat. He believed that they would never see him again, and added that he didn't want to hear anything more about this guy. Instead, he wanted to know more about the technique that Ullicu had used to defeat the PTO soldier they had fought. Ullicu, who wasn't quite in the mood to thoroughly explain it, told him that it had taken him twenty years to master. Then again, he hadn't had anyone instructing him, since he had invented it himself. So perhaps he could teach them one day. However, Ullicu pointed out that this technique was too slow and unreliable to be very useful as anything other than a last resort. In his opinion, they should focus on general strength training for the first few months. Tarnece then stood up, raised his fist, and announced that he was ready for whatever Ullicu would throw at them.

Far away from the planet XZ-457, a lone space pod was traversing deep space. The computer now awakened the occupant with an important warning. Korat opened his eyes to find all sorts of lights blinking on the control panel. He looked out of the window, and could see that the ship was in the middle of a violent space storm. It looked to him like he was in a region where a star had recently exploded. He commanded the computer to find a way out of the storm with the least turbulence. Korat closed his eyes again for a moment, while relying on the computer to do the work. So far he had visited one planet he remembered from the list. Unfortunately, he had learned that the local populace had managed to kill the Saiyan infant that had been sent there. He had thus no choice but to continue searching. While he was still thinking about what he would find on the next planet, the entire pod suddenly started shaking. The shaking continued while the pod started spinning uncontrollably. Korat was pressed into his seat by the centrifugal forces. As he peered out of the window, all he could see was a strange purple light.

When Korat awoke again, he was completely disoriented. He was no longer inside his space pod, but in some kind of dirty and dark building. He was lying on his back on a hard stone surface. When he looked around, he realized that his vision was a somewhat blurry. Nevertheless, he managed to discern a green skinned humanoid alien, who was near the other end of the room. Korat tried to silently sit up in order to avoid attracting the alien's attention, but it didn't matter. The alien turned around to face him, but it did not seem hostile. Korat knew that if it had wanted to kill him, it would have been over by now. The alien began speaking in a language Korat didn't understand, and then quickly switched to galactic basic. It called Korat 'brother' and mentioned that with the help of a Saiyan he now had at least a chance to get out of here.

It didn't take long for Korat to realize that the alien was in fact a Namekian, judging by the antennae and pointy ears. The first thought that popped into his mind was why a Namekian would refer to a Saiyan as if their races were best buddies. He pointed this out to the Namekian, who was surprised Korat did not see the link between their races: they were both warrior races. This statement surprised Korat even more. He knew of the race from Namek, but they were supposed to be a peaceful race of space traders. Then again, he had never been to Namek, nor had he personally met a Namekian before. In any case, he didn't really care who this alien was or what it thought about him. Korat, who was still not feeling very well, demanded to know what had happened to him and why he was on Namek.

This lead the Namekian to reveal that they were not on Namek but instead on a prison planet that was under the jurisdiction of the lord Bolwor. Korat immediately asked if he was one of the prisoners and the Namekian replied that they both were. He then showed Korat the metal bands around his wrists and ankles. Korat hadn't realized until now that he himself had been fitted with the same bands as well. He immediately tried to break them, but could not find the strength to do it. He even failed to generate a simple energy blast. The Namekian then explained that the bands suppress energy levels, making it impossible for the individual wearing them to summon the strength necessary to break them.

Korat quickly realized that the purple light must have been some kind of trap for space travelers, and decided to listen patiently to what more the Namekian had to say. His name was Racol, and he had been here for quite a long time. Before he had been captured, he had been scouting space for resources on a mission for his father. He had no idea why he had been captured, but the rumor was that this facility was some kind of experiment. Lord Bolwor seemed to be a small-time planet conqueror that did not appear to be affiliated with a large empire. Racol then admitted that he recognized Korat as being a Saiyan by his black hair and tail. Through the teachings of his father, he knew of the capabilities of the Saiyans, which is why he now believed they stood a chance of escaping. Korat understood that Racol was referring to his ability to transform using a full moon. No matter how low a Saiyan's energy level would get in their base form, the moonlight would trigger a transformation regardless.

When Korat was feeling well enough to walk, Racol led him out of the dark room they were in. Soon, they found themselves in a sandy courtyard. There were at least several dozen other aliens there, all fitted with the same metal bands. They all looked fairly miserable. In the middle of the yard there was a pedestal with a vaguely humanoid statue on top of it. The metal statue was posing in a victorious stance while holding a sword. Around the courtyard stood several buildings, most of them looking quite old and battered. However, there was one building that stood out. It had bright white walls and a large balcony. According to Racol, the creature standing there right now was lord Bolwor. Korat could see that Bolwor was an insect-like humanoid creature with six limbs, large bulgy eyes and dark grey skin. He was overseeing the courtyard in such a pompous way that Korat immediately knew that he had to do whatever he could to bring him and his prison down.


	7. The living legend

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

**Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free story. If there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

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><p><span>Chapter 7: The living legend<span>

The calm landscape of planet XZ-457 was being disturbed by a two versus one fight that was taking place. The sounds of impacting punches and kicks and exploding blasts echoed throughout the entire valley. On the ground, Tarnece had to jump aside to avoid several small round energy blasts that had been fired from the air. Once the blasts had exploded, he retaliated with a concentrated energy beam fired with two hands. Up in the air, Sorra managed to dodge it just in time. Tarnece then shouted for Chayandi to assist him again. However, since the beginning of the fight, she had been too nervous to fight effectively. Right now she was just standing still on the ground, slightly shivering. She couldn't make up her mind about what attack to use, as she was primarily worrying about possibly hurting Sorra.

Ullicu was sitting on a hilltop to oversee the fight and to coach the participants. After praising Tarnece, he decided to see if he could get Chayandi angry enough to motivate her properly. Ullicu raised his voice and tried to sound like a grumpy old man as much as possible, while he began accusing Chayandi of being the most worthless Saiyan he had ever encountered. He asked himself out loud why he had even let her join their group. When he still did not see the desired result, he continued by threatening to beat some sense into her for not being able to help her teammate during a fight. Sorra understood what Ullicu was trying to do, and began taunting Chayandi, calling her a cry baby who wasn't worthy of being a Saiyan. Chayandi was now shivering even more, and barely managed to look at Tarnece to see his reaction. Although he didn't say anything, his facial expression seemed to indicate that he agreed with Sorra and Ullicu. This was the final straw.

All of a sudden Chayandi began to scream as hard as she could, while she charged a bright violet colored energy beam. Ullicu's eyes widened. He could instantly tell that this wasn't an ordinary blast, and shouted for Sorra to dodge it. Sorra, who initially planned to block the beam, was barely in time to move out of the way. The X-shaped beam cut her cheek and a bit of her hair, before continuing on into the sky. Ullicu then called for a time-out.

The moment Sorra landed on the ground, Chayandi ran towards her, apologizing many times before being caught in Sorra's arms. Sorra hugged her to calm her down and to reassure her that the attack hadn't hurt anyone. Soon, Tarnece and Ullicu caught up with them. They were both surprised by the attack. When Chayandi had calmed enough to dare to look up at Sorra, she saw the gash in her cheek, and immediately descended back into apologizing. Sorra quickly pointed out that the injury was very minor, and joked that the scar would match the one on her other cheek. Chayandi then looked at Sorra's other cheek, but couldn't see any kind of scarring. Sorra's statement confused everyone except Tarnece, who knew exactly what she meant. He told her to drop the subject, but Sorra ignored him. She then revealed that when Tarnece was a young child, he liked to show off his knife swinging skills to his friends. One time, he tripped over his own feet, and accidently slashed through her skirt, wounding her in the butt cheek. Sorra now playfully offered to show the evidence, but a red faced Tarnece shouted that nobody wanted to see that.

Sorra's attempt at lightening the mood worked well enough that Chayandi managed to smile again. Ullicu then told Chayandi that she had done well and that she had shown them an impressive attack. However, the most important next step in her training would be to control herself better, so that she would be able to utilize her potential at will and be less of a hazard to her own team. Chayandi meekly and silently nodded in understanding. Ullicu subsequently dismissed the group from any further training today.

When the four of them returned to the camp, they could see that Tidane hadn't returned yet. This slightly worried Ullicu, seeing he was the one who sent her to check the planet XZ-462 to discover if anyone had shown up there. While Tarnece and Chayandi quickly left the camp again to hunt and explore, Sorra stayed behind with Ullicu. After starting a campfire, Sorra watched Ullicu as he stared into the distance. Suddenly, she asked what his side of the story was. Ullicu snapped out of his thoughts and looked at her slightly confused. Sorra then admitted that it had taken her a while to realize that she recognized Ullicu from before this crisis. Back home, she had seen his face multiple times in news reports. She recalled that Ullicu had been the only survivor of the 1st army of the king during the final battle of the civil war. For his loyalty and bravery, he had been granted the title of baron and had received acknowledgement that he had been a second class warrior all along, instead of a third class warrior. It was very rare that something like that happened. Sorra then recalled that the article also mentioned that he had been among the first group that had ventured out into space, which had been just months after the Tuffles had been annihilated. In short, he was quite the living legend.

Ullicu remained quiet for a moment, and then answered that it all sounded very wonderful summed up like that. However, the civil war had been anything but glorious and honorable. Quick images of the war now flashed through Ullicu's mind. He saw a dark landscape, a stormy sky, the old ruined Tuffle cities, and the fields filled with skeletons of Saiyans who had died battling each other. The earlier war against the Tuffles had been a different kind of war; it had been necessary for the Saiyans to become the dominant species on the planet. But the motivations for the later civil war had been a lot more complicated. Ullicu then saw a flash of his wife Radesha in the rain, looking horrified. This had been right before she had become the final casualty of the war, due to Ullicu's own actions. He remembered how numb he had felt when the king had personally congratulated him with the victory. When the ceremony in the palace had ended, he had been casually informed by one of the king's aides that his only son Tamo had been killed during an off-planet campaign for Frieza. The next few days after that, Ullicu had simply remained in his personal quarters, sitting around like a zombie, staring at the walls, refusing to acknowledge either of their deaths. Even if the king had made Ullicu his new heir, it would not have filled in the emptiness he had been feeling.

Ullicu supposed that there was a good side to all of this as well. If his son had survived, he would have had to explain to him how his mother had died. And he was certain that his son would have hated him forever, because her death was his fault. At least now his son had died without ever knowing what had really happened to his parents. Sorra carefully asked Ullicu what had happened to them, but he refused to elaborate, insisting that it didn't matter anymore.

Meanwhile, on the planet XZ-462, Tidane had just finished her patrol for any survivors. Just when she opened her space pod, she felt a strong gust of wind coming from behind her. After quickly turning around, she found herself standing face to face with another Saiyan. It was a young woman, with her hair in a very asymmetrical style. Tidane was caught off guard by her sudden appearance, and instinctively backed away. She then noticed the scouter with a red glass, which the stranger was still wearing. The first thing the stranger did, was put her hands on her hips and throw her had back to laugh out loud. She then admitted that she hadn't been able to resist the urge to jump scare her. She found that it was the only natural thing to do when she realized Tidane didn't have a scouter.

Aripa then shifted to a more serious tone and admitted she had heard their message, and that she presumed their group wanted her to join them. Tidane managed to regain her composure and told her she was correct. In response, Aripa wondered how big their group actually was. When she saw Tidane staring at her scouter, she revealed that it had been modified so that no one could trace it or tap in to listen to their conversation. Tidane then asked why she should believe her. This made Aripa approach her in a sleek and non-threatening way, and she only stopped when there were a few centimeters of room left between their faces. Tidane was mesmerized by her, although she didn't quite understand why. Perhaps it was her eyes, or her voice, or her smell, or all of those combined. Aripa noticed her reaction, drew a quick conclusion about it, and decided to wrap her tail around Tidane's leg for extra effect. Tidane was now blushing and trembling slightly, not knowing how to respond.

The silence was broken by Aripa making a counterproposal. Instead of her joining their group, Aripa invited Tidane to join her own 'group' instead. This was when Tidane realized that there was a tall red haired humanoid alien standing a few meters away from them. Aripa further elaborated that the group would then consist of the two of them and her manservant, who had all kinds of resources at his disposal. Tidane could see that the word 'manservant' made the alien twitch. Afterwards he looked as though steam might come from his ears. Aripa didn't even seem to notice she had offended anyone, and continued on. She offered Tidane many things: becoming her right hand, learning her skills, gaining strength, being showered in food and luxuries, always having opponents to fight. But most importantly, Aripa would share her knowledge about the Super Saiyan myth. Her father, the magnificent duke Aubergu, had passed on this knowledge to her before he had perished in planet Vegeta's destruction. Because of his death, Aripa had now become the head of her noble family, becoming a duchess in her own right.

If the two of them worked together, Aripa was sure that they could fill in the gaps in the knowledge, and fulfill their destinies by defeating Frieza and then ruling the galaxy themselves. Aripa then remained quiet for a moment, and backed away from Tidane a bit. After having given her several seconds to think about what she had said, Aripa then insisted that Tidane tell her about the rest of the survivors. Almost immediately, she heard from Tidane that they were currently composed of six individuals, and one of them was currently searching for more survivors, particularly infants who might have been overlooked during the purge. Aripa raised an eyebrow and asked if there were any elites or first class warriors amongst them. Tidane shook her head. She admitted that there was only one second class warrior, while the others were all third class. The second class warrior only mildly interested Aripa, who decided that she wanted to meet him before they would move on to do greater things.

On a mysterious prison planet, far away from the others Saiyans, Korat had given up trying to think up an escape strategy. They would be getting out of here soon, but he hated sitting around and waiting for the full moon to come. However, he didn't have much of a choice. The metal bands suppressed his energy to a point that he felt exhausted all day long. Right now, he was sitting with his back against the wall, in an empty room of one of the dilapidated buildings around the courtyard. There was a hole in the wall through which he could see the courtyard. One of the other prisoners was now cleaning up the metal statue on the pedestal, under the supervision of two of Bolwor's guards. The guards were insect-like creatures, same as Bolwor, but they were smaller and less powerful looking.

At that moment, the Namekian Racol entered the room. He then began performing his daily ritual of praying to his god. He had explained it once to Korat. The god that he and his brothers worshipped was their grandfather. Long ago, this person had sent his son away from their home planet. This son had slowly begun to rebuild their race. Racol and his brothers were forever thankful for the lives they had been given because of this. Racol performed the ritual by kneeling down and bowing several times into a single direction, while muttering words Korat could not understand. The direction he was bowing in was supposedly pointing to where the planet Namek was located, although Korat believed that Racol just chose a random direction each time he performed the ritual.

Before Racol had finished, Korat noticed that a fight had erupted between two aliens in the courtyard. It was soon broken up by the guards, but Bolwor's voice could then be heard coming from his white balcony. It appeared that Bolwor wanted the two aliens to duel properly and with an audience. Korat found this interesting enough to get up and go outside to have a better view. Racol knew that tonight there would be a full moon, and after finishing his ritual, he followed Korat.


	8. The statue

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

**Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free story. If there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

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><p><span>Chapter 8: The statue<span>

A large crowd of prisoners had now poured into the courtyard on Bolwor's orders. Soon the two aliens who had gotten into a fight were each given a sword by the guards. The guards then formed a wide circle around the two fighters, which was to be the arena. Bolwor announced from his white balcony that the loser of the match was the one who would die first. The match was only between the two of them. If they would attack anyone else, they would be executed immediately.

Korat was standing in the middle of the crowd, and couldn't see the fighters, but he could see Bolwor. His insect-like appearance didn't give him the ability to smile, although Korat imagined a very smug one, when Bolwor delightfully called for the match to begin. Several swishes and clangs could then be heard, followed by some grunting and shouting. After several minutes, it sounded like both fighters had discarded their swords, possibly because they had broken, or were not sharp enough to be effective. In the meantime, Racol had pushed his way through the mass of prisoners in order to get to Korat. Racol tapped him on the shoulder and told him to look at the sky behind him. Korat casually replied that he knew. The full moon was already rising. However, Korat had something special in mind for Bolwor. He wanted to say something first before he would transform, and planned to wait until the match was over.

A few more minutes later, after an intense struggle, there was finally a victor. Bolwor only praised him for a few seconds, and then commanded all prisoners to go inside immediately. It was at this moment that Korat shouted out that he would not. Everyone became silent. The ones closest to him backed away, leaving it very clear to Bolwor and his guards from who the defiant shout had come. Before anyone could react, Korat continued, mentioning that it was obvious they didn't know about the Saiyans, the proudest warrior race in the galaxy. Because they didn't know, he wanted to give them a taste of what was in store for them should they continue to run this prison any longer. Korat then loosened his tail from his waist and turned to face the full moon, in effect turning his back to Bolwor. The lord Bolwor became enraged by the perceived insolence of this random prisoner and shouted orders at his men to seize him. The guards approached Korat with the intension to electroshock him. But they soon froze when they saw Korat acting strangely. It was as if his heart was beating with a tremendous force that made his entire body twitch.

Korat's pupils had become red. Next, his body began to expand in size. The metal bands around his wrists and ankles promptly burst and fell off. Dark brown fur started to appear. Korat's face reformed its features; a snout with razor sharp teeth was formed and his eyes became entirely red. His voice transformed into the growls of a monster. The black and teal colored PTO armor he was still wearing expanded its size to accommodate the changing body volume. The prisoners were now running away from the courtyard in fear, and some of the guards joined them. Once Korat had completed the transformation, he turned around to face Bolwor again. He then roared so loudly at Bolwor that the latter had to brace himself to prevent being blown away. After the roar, a charged mouth blast followed. Bolwor noticed it in time to jump out of the way. The white balcony he was standing on was completely obliterated, resulting in a large cloud of dust and smoke. Korat subsequently smashed into base of the building with his arm, causing the entire structure to collapse.

Bolwor was now floating up in the sky using his energy, thinking quickly about what to do. He told his guards via the intercom on his wrist to activate the statue. While Korat was busy smashing another building, and protecting his tail as a precaution, he did not notice that several guards made it to the pedestal in the center of the courtyard. They pushed a large stone at the base. The mechanism was old, and didn't appear to have been used very recently. Somehow, the activation of the mechanism caused the statue on top of the pedestal to start moving like it was actually alive. The dark metal statue jumped off the pedestal with a summersault and then assumed a fighting stance with its sword ready.

Meanwhile, Racol had climbed onto one of the roofs, so that Korat would notice him. Normally it would be unwise to approach a transformed Saiyan, but Korat had some control over the form. He also remembered Racol. It didn't take long before he was close enough to fire a precision beam from his index finger that made the bands around Racol's wrists burst. Racol could now summon enough strength to destroy the two remaining bands by himself. It was then that he noticed the statue charging at Korat. He was too late to do anything about it, however. The statue's sword soon cut into Korat's ankle, which made him roar in pain and anger. He moved to stomp the statue under his foot, but it made several quick jumps to move out of the way. The giant ape that was Korat roared furiously into the sky and then attempted to hit the statue with several mouth blasts. One after the other failed to hit its intended target. Most of the buildings around the courtyard were destroyed instead.

While Korat had been keeping the statue busy with his rampage, Racol had taken the opportunity to prepare a special move. He had placed his hands flat against each other and in front of his body. Within seconds they had started glowing. Right now they were still glowing, but also emitting electric sparks. When the statue moved to attack Korat again, Racol moved to intercept. He quickly jumped in front of the running statue and released the electric energy he had built up. The white and yellow blast looked like a continuous stream of lightning. The statue tried to block it, but since it was made of metal, it failed. It was immediately caught in the blast, and immobilized by the electric field. Racol kept his hands aimed forward as he continued to supply energy to the immobilization field. Korat quickly realized that Racol needed him to finish it off. He would gladly help in that department.

Korat grabbed the largest and heaviest chunk of rubble he could find and heaved it over his head. Without warning, he hurled it at the statue with all the strength in his body. The chunk hit the statue with tremendous speed and force. It almost completely disintegrated upon impact. A large dust cloud formed. Korat soon noticed that Racol was now up in the air, preparing another attack. Right after Korat had jumped aside, Racol launched several handfuls of small balls of energy into the cloud. The balls exploded shortly after one another, generating even more dust and sending rubble flying through the air.

The dust slowly cleared and the statue didn't get up anymore. Bolwor had been following the fight from up above, and was surprised to see the statue be defeated. It seemed he had underestimated some of the aliens he had captured. He made a mental note to make sure he knew the species of his captives next time. It was then that his eyes met those of Racol. The latter didn't waste time and started to prepare his immobilization technique again. This was a poorly chosen tactic, however, because Bolwor had seen it in action. He moved so fast that it appeared to Racol as if he simply disappeared. Less than a second later, Bolwor reappeared right in front of Racol and kneed him in the stomach, causing him to fall out of the sky. The lord Bolwor then intended to launch an attack that would finish off his opponent, but he first had to dodge several energy blasts fired from the ground. The multitude of mouth blasts that Korat had fired mostly missed their target, but they bought enough time for Racol to recover.

The Namekian warrior soon made a controlled landing onto the shoulder of the transformed Saiyan. Together they awaited Bolwor's next move. Some of the other imprisoned aliens now carefully approached them and offered their assistance in exchange for freedom. Racol granted all their requests, while Korat kept staring up into the sky, into Bolwor's insectoid eyes. Bolwor stared right back, and decided to stop fighting. He thought to himself that when he would reach his ultimate goal, there would come a day when he would track them down and kill them in revenge for destroying his facility. He took one final look at the destroyed courtyard, before launching himself higher and higher into the sky. His speed surprised Korat, who silently watched Bolwor fly upward until he could not be seen anymore. He didn't see a point in going after him. The so called 'lord' Bolwor was nothing more than a coward in his opinion, and to him it seemed he had learned his lesson. While he kept staring at the sky, the freed aliens defeated and rounded up the remainder of Bolwor's prison guards. The prison was no more.

About half an hour later, when the moon had disappeared behind the horizon, Korat reverted back to his normal form. He was tired, but remained conscious. Racol had joined the other aliens to search for a means to leave the planet. It wasn't long before they found the underground storage compartment for all their spacecraft that had been caught in Bolwor's trap. They were all relatively undamaged.

Korat was just inspecting the remains of the statue among the rubble when Racol landed his Namekian spacecraft near him. The white oval shaped and four-legged craft was several times larger than the standard PTO space pod Korat was familiar with. Just when Racol exited the craft, something moved in the rubble. Immediately, Korat jumped aside and assumed a fighting stance. The metal statue was still lying on the ground, most of its body still in one piece. The metal had cracked however. It was moving, but not in the way it had done before. Right now, it seemed that something was trying to break out of it, like it was some kind of egg or cocoon. Whatever vile creature was trying to wriggle its way out, Korat did not want to wait to find out. He raised his hand to fire an energy blast, but before he could launch anything, the metal shell shattered into a dust cloud. Having had enough of dust clouds for one day, Korat used his energy aura to create a strong gust of wind. While the dust was being blown away, the creature that had been inside of the statue suddenly jumped forward and latched onto him.

The creature was definitely not what Korat had been imagining. It had two arms, two legs, a head and a body like him, except it had a smaller and more slender build. It had a lot of long and unkempt black hair on its head. It looked more like a person than a creature, and judging from these characteristics and the sound of its voice, he concluded that it was female. Although she had latched onto him, he realized that she wasn't doing anything to harm him. She had merely locked her arms around his waist and was now rubbing the side of her head against his chest. When he tried to remove her, he noticed two more things. There was a curling brown-haired monkey-like tail coming from her back. Also, she wasn't wearing anything except a thin layer of dust.

When Korat succeeded in loosening her grip, he wanted to have some personal space and tried to gently push her back a little. Even this gentle push caused her to fall down on her knees and hands. Her long and unkempt hair covered most of her back. Her face was also partly obscured. She lowered her voice, but nonetheless continued talking. Korat could not fully understand what she was saying. She was speaking the Saiyan language, but in a very heavy dialect he did not recognize. He believed she was thanking him for saving her life. Also it sounded like she thought he was a prince and that she found his clothes to be funny looking.

Korat was unsure if he was really awake, but decided to assume this was really happening. He asked her in the Saiyan language where she had come from. The response was not really what he had hoped for. The young woman wiped the hair out of her face and looked at him like she had just heard him utter complete nonsense. Her mouth was slightly open and her front teeth were visible. A moment later, she started smiling like a carefree child and quickly jumped to her feet, with her tail swaying happily behind her. Korat frowned and averted his eyes. He looked aside to Racol, who had his eyes widened because he too didn't have a clue as to what the hell was going on.


	9. An old wound

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

**Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free story. If there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

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><p><span>Chapter 9: An old wound<span>

On lord Bolwor's former prison planet, Korat found himself in an unexpected situation. Sure, he had set out to find more surviving individuals of his race, but this was something else. This person was neither a child sent to clear a planet, nor a member of the Saiyan army. How had she ended up inside the statue? How long had she been there? And how had she managed to get out unharmed after their attacks? Korat tried to ask the young woman these questions, but he did not get any intelligible or meaningful answers. However, judging from the few words he recognized, she still believed he was a prince who had come to rescue her.

It wasn't long before the sandy ground beneath her feet became the focus of her attention. She sat down and started drawing in the sand with her fingers. It didn't seem to bother her at all that aside from being covered in a layer of dust, she was completely naked. Korat continued trying to converse with her, but she didn't even look up anymore. He felt a bit annoyed by her sudden dismissal of him, and thought to himself that this one was essentially nothing more than a simple minded animal. She was a good example of a case which gave Saiyans a bad name. Nevertheless, he might be able to change that. But first he had to find something to cover her up with. He asked Racol to keep an eye on her while he would search the rubble. Racol simply nodded. He had gone from being wide eyed, to being eager to find out more about their mysterious and unexpected guest.

A few minutes later, when Korat returned with a couple of rags and some rope, he found Racol sitting on the ground in front of the young woman. It was clear he had caught her attention with something. Korat felt even more annoyed and demanded to know if he spoke the Saiyan language. Racol replied that he did not. However, he insisted he did speak logic and common sense, aside from Namekian and galactic basic. He had communicated with her by making gestures and drawing in the sand like her. The first thing he had done was introduce himself and subsequently he had asked her name. He believed she had told him that her name was Daika. Korat realized this did sound like a Saiyan name.

Racol continued that he was certain she was a very intelligent person. Korat found this hard to believe and raised an eyebrow, but Racol had an explanation. He said that most sapient species in the galaxy had individuals with low intellects and individuals with high intellects. However, sometimes there was an individual with an intellect far above what was normally considered as being high. Such an intellect would never be fully understood by individuals with normal intellects. To Korat, the reasoning sounded more like a boast that Racol was supposedly such an off the scale intelligent being that he could understand others like him. It seemed Racol knew what Korat was thinking, because he quickly added he was but a mere simpleton compared to her. The both of them were. The only reason he was able to tell this, was that he had experience with such cases.

Both Korat and Racol now silently watched Daika draw almost perfectly round circles in the sand around her. Korat wasn't convinced she was so much more intelligent than them, but decided for himself that the best course of action would be to take her to Ullicu. Maybe the old man could shed some light on this situation. Perhaps he knew of this planet and its history. In any case, he wanted to ditch her somewhere so that he could continue his search for more directly usable individuals.

There was work to do and right now he was wasting time. He approached Daika with the intension of wrapping her in the rags he had found. This worked better than he had thought. Daika did not resist as he clothed her in something which somewhat resembled the animal fur clothes the Saiyans had worn before coming into contact with Frieza. It appeared she didn't like the smell of it though. She sniffed the rag draped around her shoulders a few times and made a strange face while rubbing her nose. Racol noticed this, and distracted her by calling attention to his Namekian spacecraft. It wasn't long before she was smiling again, while running her hands over the smooth white surface of one of the ship's legs.

This was when Racol took the opportunity to ask Korat what they were going to do with her. Korat replied that he was going to take her back to what was left of his people. When he said it, he thought to himself that it would be a bad idea to try and fit the two of them inside his space pod. This had been done by Saiyan couples in the past. However, he knew nothing about Daika. He had no idea how she would react, or strong she was, although she seemed pretty weak. Then again for all he knew she would get a claustrophobic panic attack, and destroy the space pod with an energy blast from within. Before Korat could ask, Racol offered to take them plus the space pod to wherever he needed to go. His spacecraft was big enough to do this. He admitted that he wanted to get even. After all, if Korat hadn't come along, he probably would have remained stuck on this planet for a very long time.

Back on the planet XZ-457, Ullicu was enjoying some free time alone. He was staring into the campfire, thinking back to the good old days, before he had ever heard the name Frieza. This was back when he was still with his family, his wife and son. He fully agreed with himself on the fact that this time period had been the pinnacle of his life. Everything that had happened after this had been bad in some sort of way, and it had gone from bad to worse as the years had passed.

All of a sudden, the calm was disrupted by three loud explosions that quickly followed one another. They had come from nearby and sounded like space pods landing. Ullicu immediately went into alert mode, and quickly disappeared from the camp site. If it had been only one explosion, he might have remained calm, but three explosions indicated that it wasn't just Tidane returning from her mission. If there had indeed been survivors who had followed the instructions in their message, and Tidane was bringing them back, it would not be a problem. However, he needed to be prepared for a worst case scenario. Instead of flying, he made several long but quick leaps in order to get to the landing site with great speed. This way he would not be so easily visible or detectable by any unknown scouter.

It wasn't long before Ullicu found a suitable rock to take cover behind. First he planned to listen, before attempting to get visual contact. He heard three doors open. Soon he could hear voices coming nearer. It sounded like Tidane and one other female voice. There was a male voice as well. The male voice suddenly exclaimed that there was a strong power level nearby. This was Ullicu's cue. There wasn't much to do about it; he had been discovered and it would be pointless to pretend otherwise. However, the fact that the voice considered his power level of 5500 as being strong was enough for Ullicu to conclude the group wasn't an elite attack squad of Frieza.

Ullicu stepped into view from behind the rock and surprised all three people. Also, he was a tad surprised himself. There was Tidane, together with another female Saiyan he didn't know. There was also a male alien of a humanoid species with red hair, who vaguely looked like a Saiyan from a distance, but who was clearly of a different species. The unknown Saiyan woman now asked Tidane if this was the second class warrior she had been talking about. Tidane nodded, and stared at Ullicu with a strange look on her face. Ullicu thought she looked confused and worried. He had a feeling his action of hiding behind the rock had nothing to do with it.

The unknown Saiyan threw her head back and laughed out loud, and dubbed him the most cowardly Saiyan she had ever met. Ullicu calmly replied that there was a fine line between bravery and stupidity. The female Saiyan then proudly and smugly introduced herself as Aripa, First class warrior, Countess of Bergine, daughter of Aubergu, the Duke of Bergine. In return, Ullicu did the same. He introduced himself slightly cynical as Ullicu, Second class warrior, Baron of Vegeta. The mentioning of his title seemed to trigger something in Aripa. She pointed her finger at him and revealed she recognized him from her father's banquets and feasts. She then remembered him as King Vegeta's yes-man, the coward who had killed babies in the civil war.

This insult and the mention of his involvement in the civil war sent Ullicu into a burning rage. There was now a throbbing vein visible on his forehead and his upper lip twitched every now and then. He shouted that there were never any babies involved in that war, just adults, as if it hadn't been horrible enough already. Aripa brushed off his response with a quick remark in Tidane's direction that it was obvious he was lying. Tidane then nodded in agreement with her, which horrified Ullicu more than the remark itself. He had known Tidane from back when planet Vegeta was still whole, and she had always appeared to be a reasonable person. Now she wasn't acting like herself. Ullicu asked her not to listen to this first class nonsense and be reasonable again, but she angrily snarled at him to shut up.

Aripa continued to taunt Ullicu by slowly approaching him while talking more about his past. She revealed that when the king's elites found him during the final battle of the war, he was about to finish off his own wife in cold blood. This last remark pushed Ullicu too far. Because Aripa had approached him, she was in perfect range for him to choke her. Before she could respond, he grabbed her throat with both his hands and tightened his grip as hard he could. Aripa grabbed his arms and desperately tried to kick him loose, but it seemed he did not feel pain. Almost immediately Tidane jumped in and tried to choke Ullicu in return. He promptly shifted to a one handed grip on Aripa's throat so that he had one arm free. Subsequently, he used this arm to elbow Tidane repeatedly in the gut. It wasn't long before she fell to the ground in agony.

Ullicu refocused his attention on Aripa, and began to speak to her. He didn't sound like his usual self. His voice, which was usually light and calm, now was almost monstrous. He revealed that his wife Radesha had made the mistake of secretly becoming a member of the rebels. When he had found out near the war's end, they had battled one on one. After her defeat, he was about to spare her life when a group of loyalist first class warriors had found them. They had known all too well that he and Radesha were a couple. Despite this, they had ordered him to execute her and had threatened to give her a slow and painful death, if he refused. This was the most difficult command he had ever obeyed. The great irony was that third and second class warriors were raised to believe that elites and first class warriors were the paragon of honor. But in truth they were just as vile and twisted as Frieza himself.

When he had finished his monologue, he released Aripa from his grip. She had been struggling the entire time, and was nearly unconscious when she fell to the ground. Tidane quickly rushed to her side and helped her sit up. Ignoring them, Ullicu closed his eyes for a moment and took a couple of deep breaths. By hearing the truth spoken out loud by himself, his anger started to dissipate, and he could now reassume his usual calm demeanor. Then, he turned his attention to the tall redhead alien. He found it peculiar that the alien hadn't said a word and hadn't done anything to help Aripa. When he pointed this out, the alien simply replied that Aripa had had it coming. This prompted her to berate him for being a traitor before she descended into a coughing fit. The alien seemed to have grown tired of her, and did not respond.

It wasn't long before Aripa and Tidane left for the space pods. While entering her pod, Aripa threatened that she would return to kill him. He simply made a 'bring it on' gesture in response. Seconds later, two pods lifted off into the sky.

The redhead alien then introduced himself and offered his hand. When Ullicu did not respond, Lakeeme insisted the scouter he was wearing was modified so that Frieza could not tap in to listen. Ullicu quickly concluded that if Aripa would consider Lakeeme to be a traitor, then this meant she had built up some sort of trust with him. He now told him his own name, but did not shake his hand. There was no reason for him to trust someone who wasn't a Saiyan. His reaction caused Lakeeme to explain how and why he had saved Aripa. In short he wanted to work together with the Saiyans with the ultimate goal of taking down Frieza. Ullicu wanted proof that he meant what he said, and asked him to bring more of those modified scouters. Only then would he even consider forming an alliance.


	10. Left behind

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

**Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free story. If there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

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><p><span>Chapter 10: Left behind<span>

The journey to the planet XZ-457 would only take three days. At least, this was what Racol had told Korat, after the latter had given him the coordinates. Right now, the two of them plus Daika were already traveling to Ullicu and the others. Korat's space pod was parked in the back end of the Namekian spacecraft. Racol was sitting in the pilot's seat, while Korat was sitting on the floor beside him. Daika was in the back, sitting on the floor while tinkering with some sort of handheld device that Racol had given her.

Korat didn't like being on the ship. It was noisy, dark, and musty inside. According to Racol, the sunlight emulator had broken down. Despite the size of the ship, the interior consisted of a single room. Also, it seemed to have been designed for use by a single person. The only seat seemed to have been made for someone much taller than Racol. There was no hibernation system, so they had to sit out the journey. To top it off, the only standard supplies that were on board were drinking water and some Namekian medicine. At least Racol had informed him of the supplies before they had left. This was why Korat had brought aboard some food that he had found among the rubble: some packed prison food and some fresh meat. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

While Korat was doing mind training, Daika suddenly got up and approached him carefully. The fact that he didn't trust her behavior made it difficult for him to focus his mind. He was aware that Daika was moving again, and opened his right eye to see what she was doing now. It didn't surprise him to find her standing right in front of him. She spoke some words he didn't understand and without warning threw herself onto his lap. Before he could think of what to do, she proceeded to snuggle down against him. A moment later, she appeared to be sound asleep.

Korat was still sitting in a position for mind training, but now he could not concentrate at all. Throwing her off him seemed like a bad idea, maybe even a bit cruel. Then again, maybe he had to teach her the concept of personal space. As he thought about what to do about the situation, he noticed she was quite warm, in contrast to the cold floor he was sitting on. For a moment he wanted to stroke her hair. This was when it occurred to him that he must not allow himself to get soft. This was the path to weakness, and it was unacceptable. However, throwing her off would be cheating in his opinion. This was why he decided to start to train himself to ignore even the most pleasant distractions.

On the planet XZ-457, the morale among the Saiyans had been severely damaged. Ullicu had just told the others the truth of what had happened. He was immediately blamed by Tarnece for becoming hostile and for essentially scaring off not one but two females, which would be vital for their survival as a species. After having vented his thoughts, Tarnece flew off into the distance. Chayandi didn't say anything in response to Ullicu's story, and flew off as well, albeit in a different direction. Only Sorra remained with Ullicu. She lightheartedly told him that although her son had a point, there were far worse things that could have happened. At least he hadn't killed anyone of them. Also, Sorra admitted that if they had insulted and threatened her instead of him, she probably would have reacted the same way.

However, Ullicu didn't want to be consoled. He had done what he believed was right. Also, with any luck Lakeeme would now divert some of his resources to their group instead of to that rotten Aripa. The question was whether or not Lakeeme would return to their planet to prove his allegiance. If Aripa remained in contact with Lakeeme or his associates, then this would also mean that they would not completely lose track of them.

Despite this, Ullicu still had to think about what Tarnece had pointed out. If Aripa and Tidane would fall into Frieza's hands, it would be bad to put it mildly. If this were to happen, the galactic overlord would definitely execute them to prevent further propagation of the Saiyan race. This would leave them with only two females: Sorra and Chayandi. Ullicu then cleared his throat and bluntly told Sorra that it was certain their race would die out on the long term. There was no point in denying it. However, they now had a choice about how long this was going to take. He then turned his face away from her, and asked if she would want to help him postpone the inevitable fate. Sorra quickly realized what he was trying to say, but her facial expression became gloomy. She put her hand on his shoulder and softly told him that after she had had Tarnece, she had never succeeded in bringing another child alive into the world. According to the PTO doctors, the cause of this was that her womb had simply taken too much damage from all the fighting she had done. The damage was irreversible. Because she revealed this so easily, Ullicu believed that she had made peace with her situation a long time ago.

Nevertheless, this reveal was alarming for Ullicu to hear, especially since he recalled what he had done to Tidane to remove her grip on him. Sensing that this conversation was going down a grim path, Sorra attempted to lighten the mood by insisting that everything else down there was still in order. If he was ever stressed out, or simply wanted to have some fun, he needed to only ask. There was even a cave nearby which they could use. Sorra wanted to go into more details, but Ullicu interrupted her, and told her he got it. This prompted Sorra to give him a friendly slap on the back and tell him not to worry too much about what was in the past. Ullicu simply stared ahead when Sorra finally flew away from him.

The situation on planet XZ-457 remained relatively calm for the next few days. However, when the group was in the middle of another training session, they were interrupted by the noise of an unidentified spacecraft landing in the vicinity of their camp. The spacecraft did not create a crater upon landing, and with its purple colored domed windows, it looked somewhat like a small version of a PTO capital spaceship. Sorra and Tarnece were the first ones to arrive at the ship's landing site, closely followed by Ullicu and Chayandi. Ullicu instructed them to wait until whoever was inside would show his face and to expect the unexpected. All four Saiyans then assumed a combat stance.

When the door at the bottom of the spacecraft opened, they could soon see the legs of three people. A moment later it became apparent that Korat was one of those three. Tarnece was surprised to see him back at all, and was caught off-guard when his mother hugged him from behind. It was apparent that Sorra was relieved. Chayandi cheered for Tarnece and Sorra, and for Korat's return. Ullicu simply gave a slight smile. Soon, all of them took notice of the other people standing on the descending door. One was apparently also Saiyan, while the other was some sort of green-skinned alien.

It wasn't long before Korat had given a short summary about how he had ended up with these two companions. Daika's feral appearance and odd behavior immediately drew the attention of Tarnece, Sorra and Chayandi. However, Ullicu kept eyeing Racol with suspicion. He disliked the fact that there was now yet another alien involved with them. He feared that if this would go on, someone was bound to slip up and reveal the survival of their group to the wrong species or organization. Racol just stared right back at him. His expression did not contain any emotion, so Ullicu could not discern what he might be thinking.

Soon, the others realized that they could barely communicate with Daika. After she had seemed excited to see and meet all of them, she lost her enthusiasm when they could not understand each other properly. Then, she resumed fiddling with the handheld device she had been clinging to. Tarnece was quick to label her a beast, and Korat partially agreed, but also insisted that there was a bit more to her. Ullicu asked him to explain her emergence from the statue in a bit more detail. Korat recalled that she had emerged from the cracked metal statue after a brief struggle to break the shell. Just moments before, Racol and he had been fighting this statue because an alien named Bolwor had set it loose on them. Daika had been as dirty as she was now and she had had no clothes or uniform of any kind. Why there would be a Saiyan sealed inside a statue was something which intrigued Ullicu more than anything. He demanded that Korat tell more, but the latter requested they eat first. Afterwards, he would be glad to tell an unabridged version of the events that had taken place.

While the group was sitting around a campfire, with the meal almost finished, Korat began telling what had happened after he had left them. He told them about his journey, his capture, the prison planet, the statue, the alien Bolwor, how they had escaped, and what had happened after that. He also revealed that as far as he could understand from Daika's words, she thought he was a prince who had come to rescue her. Perhaps this could also provide a clue as to who she was. Ullicu couldn't make any sense of Bolwor's role in all of this, however. Bolwor's motivation, goals and connection to the statue were unclear to him.

Tarnece believed he had figured it out and promptly revealed his theory. He believed that Bolwor was a wizard, who had created Daika to distract Korat. The theory was quickly questioned by Chayandi, who pointed out that the insectoid Bolwor couldn't have known what a female Saiyan would look like if he had never met another Saiyan besides Korat. Tarnece knew she had a point, but acted as if the entire story didn't interest him anyway. He lied down on his back and told the others he wasn't going to waste any more energy thinking about all of this. In truth however, he was thinking about something else. He could tell that Chayandi took Korat's story very seriously. He had a feeling she admired Korat, because he recalled her calling him brave and selfless, just after he had first gone his own way.

Korat then turned to Ullicu, and told him his own theory. He thought Daika might have been captured or left behind during the Saiyans' first expeditions into space after defeating the Tuffles. This was almost immediately refuted by Ullicu. The latter explained he had been on one of those expeditions, and he had been closely involved with the other ones. He still remembered the faces of all those who had gone into space in the early days. Daika had most definitely not been one of them. He was certain he would have remembered her peculiar dialect and behavior.

His own reasoning made him realize something very important. The dialect was the key. After the defeat of the Tuffles, all Saiyan clans had been formally merged and ruled by King Vegeta thereafter. At the time of the merger, Ullicu knew that there had been good mutual intelligibility between all known dialects. In this era, a dialect such as Daika's would have been unheard of on their planet. It could only have formed during a long period of isolation from other clans. And since no clan was left isolated after the war, Daika did not fit into the picture. Therefore, he insisted there was only one logical conclusion: Daika was not from planet Vegeta.

Ullicu's conclusion was so unusual that it alarmed the others. Tarnece jumped to his feet and claimed that if this was true, it meant Daika was not a Saiyan. Ullicu quickly shook his head and corrected him. She was a Saiyan alright, not from Vegeta, but from somewhere else. After all, Vegeta was not their race's true home world. According to the legends, their race had arrived there in an ancient spacecraft. They had allegedly departed from their true home, and he didn't see why the ship couldn't have made a stop or two on other planets. Daika could have been sealed in the statue back then and left behind, either on purpose or by accident. Ullicu shut his mouth for a moment when he realized he was suggesting that Daika was around seven to eight generations old. The others looked at him as if he had gone insane. In defense of his statement, he claimed it was possible if being sealed in the statue had put her in a kind of hibernation state.

Tarnece questioned his reasoning by pointing out that although Daika looked like a relatively weak Saiyan, she certainly didn't act like one. How could they be sure she was a true Saiyan? According to him, there was only one way to confirm what she actually was. They had to force her to look at a full moon. Out of nowhere, Sorra grabbed her son by the ear and told him they were not going to force this poor girl to do anything. The fact that Daika looked like a Saiyan was good enough for her. Ullicu quickly agreed with her, as did Korat. Ullicu then ordered Chayandi to go and cleanup Daika. They might not be able to find out the truth about her right now, but perhaps they would eventually. Now they had to focus their attention on their other guest, the Namekian.


	11. The treasure

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

**Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free story. If there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

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><p><strong>To all reviewers and followers: Thank you for your continued support and interest in this story and its characters. Here is a longer-than-usual chapter for you to enjoy. <strong>

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><p><span>Chapter 11: The treasure<span>

At the camp of the surviving Saiyans, Racol remained brief with his description of his version of the events. Just like he had told Korat, he told the group he had been on a mission for his father when he had been captured and brought to prison planet. His father had taught him about the Saiyans, which was why he had supported Korat, because he knew the latter could free them both. Afterwards, he had wanted to get even by offering his assistance. To Ullicu, it seemed Racol truly believed this had been the only right thing for him to do. This was curious because not many aliens would help a Saiyan if they knew of their race's reputation. Most just tried to challenge them, or simply fled at the first opportunity. Instead, Racol had stayed with Korat. This made Ullicu wonder just what exactly Racol's father had taught him about the Saiyans. Moreover, who was his father?

When Ullicu asked him about his father, Racol changed his attitude somewhat. He started speaking about his background in such a proud tone of voice that Ullicu thought for a moment he could have made a decent Saiyan had he been born as one. Racol revealed that his grandfather Sla'ak had been an ancient Namekian who had lived for many years on the planet Namek. Near the end of his life, a violent shift in the planet's climate threatened to wipe out all life on the planet. Sla'ak had put all his efforts into getting a spacecraft ready so his only son Siglar could escape the planet. He had succeeded just in time. Siglar escaped, while Sla'ak died in one of the violent storms. The former had landed on another planet safely and he had sworn to rebuild the Namekian race. Racol revealed that he himself was Siglar's third son. The spacecraft he currently had with him was the one his father had been on. After all this time it was still functioning, which was further proof of his ancestors' skills and knowledge.

Racol then moved on to the subject of what his father had explained about the Saiyans. According to him, Siglar taught all his children about the races of the galaxy he had met in person. The Saiyans were one of those races. Siglar had told them once that the Saiyans had been traveling the galaxy for hundreds of years when he had encountered them on one of his journeys. During his brief time with them, he had learned of their fighting skills and of their tails, which gave them the ability to transform at a full-moon. When transformed, they became a powerful force to be reckoned with. After testing their strength against that of Siglar, they had allowed him to resume his journey. Siglar would always look back to this encounter with a hint of sadness and regret about the fact he had never found them again.

After Racol finished saying what he wanted to say, the reactions from the others were mixed. Korat looked indifferent, as if he had heard the entire story already. Tarnece left the group using the excuse that he was going to find some food because he was starving. Sorra didn't pay much attention to her son and seemed to be intrigued by the story. She asked how many brothers Racol had. The answer was three: two older, one younger.

Despite Racol being open about himself and about his motivation for helping Korat, Ullicu still did not trust him. If it was true that Siglar had encountered a group of Saiyans who did not have a home planet, it must have happened before they had landed on planet Vegeta. This would mean that Siglar was so old he had memories of events in Saiyan history, which Ullicu and the rest of the survivors only knew of through legends and myths. Also, if Siglar had survived a fight with the Saiyans in their transformed states, he had to be very powerful. No matter his intentions, these facts made him a threat to the Saiyan race's survival in Ullicu's eyes. However, he didn't want Racol to know this. Therefore, he calmly asked Korat to go back with Racol to the latter's planet in order to learn more about Siglar. Korat agreed and revealed that Racol and he had already planned this before Ullicu had done the suggestion. Racol nodded in response, and added that his father would be most pleased to receive a great warrior such as Korat.

Meanwhile, Tarnece was making his way to where he believed Chayandi was taking Daika in order to clean her up. There was a lake not too far away from their camp, which some members of their group used for bathing. Normally, he went there every two to three days. He always went there by himself, although he kept hoping for a female companion aside from his mother to join him. Of course, his wish had never come true, although he had seen Chayandi spy on him once. When she had realized he had seen her, she had unfortunately fled, instead of having joined him. Tarnece himself had also tried on numerous occasions to spy on Chayandi and Tidane. However, he hadn't had any luck whatsoever. Tidane appeared to always bathe with her clothes on. Tarnece had concluded there was no worse prude than her. This was in contrast to Chayandi, who seemed to be a fan of skinny dipping like him. Unfortunately, his mother had always prevented him from getting near her while she was here. This was why up until now he had only caught a few glimpses of her from a very long distance. Right now, his mother was preoccupied with the group discussion, so today might be his lucky day.

It wasn't long before Tarnece arrived at the outer edge of the forest, which surrounded the lake. The water was calm and clear. He could discern two people on the far side of the lake. While keeping low to the ground, Tarnece silently moved in closer along the tree line. He stopped when he had found a spot with a good view, which was also inconspicuous and far enough away not to attract their attention. He supposed all this sneaking around might actually improve his stealth skills.

Currently, both Daika and Chayandi were standing knee deep in the lake. Daika was completely naked, but also completely unfazed by it. Tarnece realized he had been a fool before, when he had suggested that Daika was a beast and not a true Saiyan. Now she seemed more like an angel version of a Saiyan. With the dust removed, her hair seemed blacker than outer space. Her skin was so pale that Tarnece believed she had never seen sunlight in her life. Her body looked like someone had designed it with the intension to create the perfect shape. As she was standing in front of Chayandi, she seemed bored. She was playing with her own tail and talked endlessly in her strange dialect. It was clear to him that Chayandi took her job assignment very seriously, as she ignored Daika's nagging, and thoroughly tried to scrub all the filth from Daika's skin with a cloth.

Soon, he realized he vaguely recognized some of the words Daika spoke. It seemed to him that Daika was debating with herself whether Chayandi was a boy or girl, because she couldn't tell. The answer was obvious to Tarnece, but he had to agree that if one couldn't see Chayandi's face, hear her voice, and disregarded her female armor type, she could be mistaken for a skinny teenage boy. However, you would have to be very dense to actually believe that.

When Chayandi was nearly finished, Daika became more playful and all of a sudden started to poke and prod her. Tarnece wasn't sure what she was trying to do. Eventually he concluded that Daika seemed to want to return the favor. Initially, Chayandi politely tried to get her to stop, but Daika kept trying until Chayandi had had enough of it. She looked a tad annoyed when she lifted her arms in the air. It now appeared she was waiting to see what Daika would do. The latter quickly figured out how to remove the chest armor piece, despite probably never having worn such a thing herself. Chayandi's gloves and boots were next, followed by her underclothes.

The result gave Daika the answer she wanted: Chayandi was definitely a girl. Daika became even more enthusiastic and started to thoroughly but gently scrub her back. Chayandi subsequently also allowed Daika to wash the rest of her body. Tarnece could clearly see that she was more slender than Daika. Her skin was slightly though uniformly tanned, most likely because of the two suns of Vegeta. Tarnece could not believe fate had allowed him to witness this scene. Finally something good and worthwhile had happened in his life. But at the same time, he couldn't help but think how much of this had been wasted when that son of a bitch Frieza had blown up their planet. It was forever gone. The obvious thing to do was to get revenge. But what was more important really? Was it revenge or was it protecting what was left of their race? Perhaps both could be achieved eventually. However, Tarnece knew he would rather die by Frieza's hand than let these two beautiful creatures ever be harmed. In any case, he realized he had found new motivation to increase his strength through training as much he could.

About half an hour later, Tarnece returned to camp. He found Korat and Racol busily loading the spaceship with food and water. It seemed they were getting ready to leave soon. Tarnece knew he hadn't had a one-to-one talk with Korat since the two of them had met and normally he would not be interested in such a thing. However, Korat's eagerness to leave so soon after getting back, made Tarnece want to ask him a few things. It was a good thing the others were currently out of earshot.

While Korat was carrying a bag full of freshly picked fruits to the ship, Tarnece called his name. This made the former look over his shoulder with a dull expression on his face. Tarnece approached, and when he was near enough so that he didn't have to speak so loud, asked Korat what was going on inside his head. Korat didn't know what he meant, and simply responded that he wasn't going to starve to death on his journey if he could do something about it. His reaction caused Tarnece to raise his voice again to call out that he didn't care about the stupid fruit. He told him he was talking about Daika. Tarnece continued by asking why he didn't care about the fact that a nearly naked female had practically fallen in his lap. Any normal Saiyan Tarnece had once known would have taken advantage of this. Korat stoically replied that none of such things mattered anymore. Strength and knowledge were the only things that mattered to him now. Daika's presence would only slow him down. He was better off alone.

While Tarnece was at a loss for words, Ullicu unexpectedly joined the conversation. He admitted he knew what Korat was trying to do, but told him it was no use. By punishing himself, he wasn't going to get his squad back. Korat was suddenly angered by the mentioning of his former squad and demanded that Ullicu never bring this up again. He continued by saying that after he would get back to report on Siglar, they would not be seeing him again until he had found another survivor of their species. Finally, he stretched out his arm and pointed his finger first at Tarnece, then at Ullicu, and made a threat that they should mind their own business or he would have to beat some sense into them.

Shortly thereafter, and without saying another word, Korat departed the planet together with Racol on his Namekian spacecraft. When they were well away from the planet, Racol admitted he didn't quite understand what the argument had been about. However, if something like this would happen again, he would be siding with him. Korat gave a slight nod in approval, and told Racol he would explain it to him on the way. After all, as a friend, he deserved to understand the situation.

Far away from planet XZ-457, two PTO space pods were traveling space. They were only moments away from landing on a relatively large planet, which from a distance appeared dark blue in color. After both pods entered the atmosphere, it wasn't long before they finally touched down by creating two large craters. When the dust had cleared, the pod doors opened, revealing that Aripa and Tidane were inside.

While Aripa hovered out of the crater with ease, Tidane found it more difficult to do than usual. She asked Aripa if she knew how strong the gravity of the planet was. Aripa answered a bit nonchalantly that it was about two times that of planet Vegeta. Her reaction was a clear indicator for Tidane that Aripa was used to this kind of gravity, unlike her. After getting out of the crater, Tidane took in her surroundings for a moment. The planet's surface was rough, with rocks and boulders scattered all around. Most of the ground was covered in a layer of dark blue dust. The sky was purple in color. There were some mountains visible in the distance. Aripa then gave a nod in the direction of the mountains and told Tidane that was where they had to go. Right after Aripa launched herself into the sky to fly there, Tidane followed her lead.

For Tidane, it was a strange experience to be invading an inhabited planet again after everything that had happened. Admittedly, it wasn't an official PTO mission like in the old days, but it nonetheless felt a bit like one. On their way here, Aripa had told her of this planet and of its treasures. One particularly interesting trinket the inhabitants were guarding was the so-called Stone of Ytmium, named after the planet. The stone allegedly had the power to alter the memory of whoever it was used on. Aripa had learned of the stone a few years ago and had kept it a secret from everyone she knew, because she didn't want the knowledge to accidently fall in Frieza's hands. Now that the both of them were effectively free from the clutches of the PTO, Aripa felt it was time to take the stone for themselves. With the stone, they would have a considerable advantage against Frieza and his army. Acquiring it would be the first step into the direction of ultimately toppling him and his empire.

Much had happened in just a small amount of time. Only a short while ago, Tidane had abandoned the others to join Aripa. She didn't see why they had to get this stone so suddenly, if it had been kept on this planet in an undiscovered state for years. What she really wanted was to return to some semblance of civilization and enjoy modern conveniences, such as a hot shower and a properly cooked meal. Also, she wanted to get into a new set of armor. However, Aripa's will was so strong that she felt there was nothing she could do that would change her mind. Right now, Tidane did not feel they were on the same level. She felt more like a side-kick to Aripa, while the latter got to make all the decisions. Tidane didn't know for sure what was going to happen once they managed to get the stone, but she could not picture Aripa using it on her. They were on the same side, weren't they?

This was the real question. The fact they were both Saiyans didn't mean much in this case, since she had left the group of other survivors. Also, their classes were incompatible. A first class warrior teaming up with a third class one wasn't something that would have happened back when they still had a home planet. Then again, those rules no longer applied. Aripa hadn't berated her for being a low class warrior; it was just in her nature to act like a boss. She seemed to have more interest in her than the others had ever had. Aripa had brought her along on this important mission because she needed her help. These thoughts made Tidane feel that Aripa was on her side.

Tidane also felt that none of the others had actually been on her side. The way she saw it, Korat had kept her down by outright rejecting her help with finding other survivors. Tarnece had believed she was a bimbo he could win over with his pathetic attempts at impressing her. Sorra and Chayandi had conspired to make her the outcast of the group out of jealousy, because they couldn't stand her accomplishments during training. But the greatest antagonist had been Ullicu. He was the one who had murdered his own wife, the one who had attempted to murder Aripa and the one who had kept the group under his thumb, her most of all. She wouldn't be surprised if he actually had delusions of becoming the new king of their race. Tidane hoped very fervently that the others would turn on him as well, because he deserved it.


	12. Beyond the fortress

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

**Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free story. If there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

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><p><span>Chapter 12: Beyond the fortress<span>

Aripa and Tidane landed close to a large boulder in the middle of an open field. If one looked beyond the boulder, one could see a mountain ridge nearby. Built in the side of the nearest mountain, there was a large stone and metal fortress of at least twenty floors high. This was where the Stone of Ytmium was being held. Aripa took a peek from behind the boulder and commented that the fortress was very peaceful and quiet. The guards were not expecting a thing. If only they knew what was about to happen to them. Aripa could not suppress a smile as she thought about it. She then turned to Tidane to ask her if the plan was clear to her.

Tidane nodded, but did not seem very confident. She repeated the plan in her head as a reminder to herself. They were going to attack the fortress separately. She was going to wait and wear the special goggles, while Aripa would create a fake moon and transform. Then Aripa would attract the fortress' complete attention, allowing Tidane to sneak into the structure and fight her way to the stone. It was going to be located deep in the fortress, and it would be enjoying the best protection the guards had to offer. Since Aripa's attack would leave the perimeter guards with their hands full, they would not be focusing much on the fortress' internal security. The guards were small and bipedal lizard-like creatures, who wore round helmets and who used a wide array of energy weapons. These weapons were much like the arm cannons of PTO foot soldiers. Aripa had told her that the guards only had power levels ranging from 100 for common soldiers to 300 for commanders. Also, they did not have the skill or knowledge to use their own latent energy to fight or create energy attacks. Killing any guards she might encounter would therefore be relatively easy. That was, of course, assuming Aripa's intel about the species was correct.

Aripa was just about to create a fake moon, when she suddenly snapped her fingers. Tidane was almost afraid it was directed at her for forgetting part of the plan. However, it turned out that Aripa suddenly remembered something. She grabbed a small object from her back pocket. It was a small bottle, which was meant to contain Saibamen seeds. Aripa held the bottle close to her face, shook it a few times, and then smiled again. From a distance, it appeared to Tidane that there were two seeds left. However, when Aripa made only one small hole in the ground and emptied the bottle, Tidane realized it was in fact one big misshapen seed.

Not long after Aripa poured the liquid fertilizer onto the ground, the seed began to grow. Soon, a particularly large, ugly and hunchbacked Saibaman sprouted from the ground. Tidane took a few steps back with a disgusted expression on her face. It was a truly hideous creature, which was now looking and growling at her. Aripa laughed at Tidane's reaction for a moment, but then put her hand on Tidane's shoulder, and insisted that it followed orders just fine. They didn't have to worry about its loyalty. She further explained that this Saibaman had been given to her by her father to keep as a pet. If properly commanded, it could serve as a reasonably effective attack dog. She wanted Tidane to use it to help her achieve their goal.

Before Tidane could agree with this decision, Aripa created a white sphere of energy, which she promptly threw into the sky. She then tossed her scouter, a red colored model, towards Tidane, and subsequently ran away from the boulder. Tidane caught the device and quickly stowed it away under her chest armor piece, along with her own blue colored model. Then she hurriedly put on the goggles, which she had earlier received from Aripa. Wondering if the goggles actually did what they were supposed to, Tidane looked at the fake moon in the sky for a few seconds. Nothing unusual happened to her. On the other hand, Aripa was clearly affected by it. Her body began to expand in size and her armor did the same. As expected, it didn't take her long complete her transformation into her Great Ape form. Tidane had never witnessed a transformation in a situation like this. She had seen others transform before, but in those situations she had always transformed alongside them. She could hardly remember anything of the transformations afterwards. Therefore, these goggles now provided an interesting point of view.

The first thing Aripa did when the transformation was completed was raise her fists and roar towards the sky. Then she started launching mouth blasts into several directions. Soon, the ground was shaking and explosions could be seen and heard. Some of the blasts were aimed in the general direction of the fortress, though Tidane could see that Aripa was trying to avoid directly hitting the structure too often. After all, she wouldn't want to destroy the stone before they had a chance to use it. Aripa was just making it clear to the guards that there was now a serious threat on their doorstep.

First class warriors were not considered first class purely because their power levels were higher than those of ordinary Saiyans. They were more skilled and better trained as well. Tidane knew she wouldn't be able to do what Aripa was doing in this form. She would just be a raging beast that would forget about the stone, and just destroy everything in sight. Aripa likely knew this as well, which was why she had entrusted the task of retrieving the stone to her instead. Tidane wasn't planning to disappoint her.

Tidane yelled at the Saibaman to follow her, and then started sprinting away from Aripa's location. She planned to approach the fortress from the side and find an entrance. If she couldn't find one, she just had to make one. Meanwhile, the fortress had gone on full alert. Alarms were sounding and laser beams were being fired at Aripa, though without any effect. Several seconds later, Tidane arrived at the base of the fortress. It was simply a grey wall without windows, doors, or defensive weapons. The first defensive level seemed to be higher up. Tidane jumped about twenty meters upwards, and landed on a ledge. The Saibaman landed beside her on the same ledge shortly thereafter. About five lizard guards were busily loading a large stationary gun, when they noticed the two intruders and simply stared at them for a moment. The gun was large and heavy, and not meant to be aimed at the ledge. Tidane sarcastically apologized as she fired a one handed blue energy wave at them. The guards were powerless to stop it; they simply froze in terror as they were engulfed in blue light. A moment later, they were completely vaporized by the wave. Tidane initially thought it would feel strange to be killing again after what happened to their planet. However, this gave her a feeling of being unstoppable instead. She realized she now felt like a Saiyan again.

From her position on the ledge, Tidane could see an open door, which would lead her inside the complex. She commanded the Saibaman to head in first and to kill everyone it would encounter. After the creature obeyed, Tidane ran after it. She quickly removed the goggles and put her scouter back on her face. It immediately picked up dozens of small power levels. The Saibaman sprayed the first wave of guards with acid from its head. The second wave was slammed against the walls of the corridor. Tidane only had to follow the screams to catch up with the eager Saibaman.

After the second wave, the source of guards seemed to be depleted. Tidane and the Saibaman traversed many empty corridors, which had all side doors shut and locked. Right when Tidane decided it was time to blast a new path, they found a large room at the end of a corridor. There was a congregation of guards, most of who were taking cover behind various defensive positions, such as waist-height walls. Some were manning turrets. The moment they had visual contact with the intruders, they fired everything they had. The Saibaman tried to block the attacks, but they had enough force to blast the creature back into the corridor. In contrast, Tidane quickly crossed her arms in front of her chest, raised her voice for a moment, and generated a dome-shaped blue colored energy shield. The shield had absorbed over a hundred small energy projectiles by the time the Saibaman managed a counter attack. The creature created an afterimage of itself in an easy to hit location, while it jumped behind the first line of defense. The front guards kept firing at the afterimage, while the Saibaman started punching out the rear guards.

When the front guards realized what was going on, it was already too late, as the Saibaman quickly took them out as well. Several seconds later, the room had become quiet. Every guard was now dead, or at least dying. It seemed to Tidane that this security barrier was probably the beginning of the inner security near the Stone of Ytmium. The corridor behind this barrier would most likely bring her closer to it. Once again, she commanded the Saibaman to go ahead and kill everything it encountered.

While they were running down the corridor, the entire complex began to shake and the lights started to flicker. This was Aripa's doing no doubt. Tidane stopped for a moment and gave a slight smile. Her scouter indicated that there was a power level behind her. Before she could act on this information, something knocked her to the floor with tremendous force. She could feel a burning sensation on her back, near her right shoulder. While she was on her hands and knees, she could see small teal colored pieces on the ground beneath her. It appeared those were particles of her armor that had been pierced. The wound was nothing serious, however. At least it didn't feel like it. Tidane pushed herself up, turned around in the air, and landed on her feet, coming face to face with the culprit. It was a single guard who was holding a large gun, which was still smoking. The gun appeared to be for single use, or otherwise had a long reload time, because the guard didn't bother to try to attack her again. In a desperate tone of voice, the guard asked Tidane why she was doing this. The only answer he got from her was a fist to the gut, followed by a neck snap.

While continuing down the corridor, Tidane began to think that Aripa might have underestimated the technology of these creatures. Although that gun had hardly wounded her, she hadn't expected to actually be knocked down during this mission. She had to stay focused, because if she would run into a batch of guards carrying those guns, they might be able to actually damage her.

The next room was a noteworthy one. The wall in the back was made of heavily reinforced metal. On a closer look, it appeared to be some kind of large vault door. Tidane would probably have concluded the stone was being kept there, were it not for the fact that five lizard guards were standing in front of it, with the leader holding a small black and round object. The leader threatened that he knew why she had come, but he insisted she soon wouldn't remember it. Subsequently, the four others charged Tidane and the Saibaman. They were not wielding any weapons, and seemed to be trained to use their latent energy. They unleashed a storm of punches and kicks. The lizard warriors were reasonably quick, but they were nothing that Tidane couldn't handle. However, she knew immediately that these warriors only served to distract her, while the leader would use the stone. She elbowed one of the warriors in the face, and tried to focus on the leader. The latter was making eye contact with her and was holding the stone ready. Right at that instant, the Saibaman jumped in front of her, breaking eye contact. The leader began to curse the Saibaman for intervening. Tidane wasn't quite sure how the stone worked, but it seemed the Saibaman had been the recipient of the stone's effects. The creature had become completely dazed.

Tidane took the opportunity to fire a finger beam at the leader, which promptly knocked the stone from his hand. In mere moments, she blasted the warriors away from her, and managed to snatch the stone from the ground. When she held the stone above her head in triumph, the leader immediately surrendered. Tidane offered to let him live in exchange for telling her how the stone worked. To her surprise, the leader refused to do it, and said he would rather die than ever reveal anything. Tidane decided to try and use the stone on him anyway. She held it in one hand and made eye contact with the lizard leader. The stone's exact workings were unknown to her, but she decided to picture in her mind the memory she wanted to have altered, and how she wanted to alter it. Once she had done this, the leader was dazed for a moment, after which he looked around, apparently not knowing what was going on. Just when he asked who she was, Tidane fired a blast which completely incinerated him. He had served his purpose.

By the time the dust from the last blast had cleared, the Saibaman was no longer dazed. It just resumed its position by her side as if nothing had happened. Tidane knew that Saibamen did not have conventional memories. They only had programmed knowledge of fighting and of obeying their master. It seemed the creature hadn't lost any of that. She was amazed that this Saibaman had jumped in front of her to shield her, even though it probably didn't have a clue what the stone actually did. The Saibaman had proved itself most useful and Tidane was glad Aripa had remembered she had it with her.

A few minutes later, Tidane exited the fortress, which allowed her to see the complete devastation Aripa had caused. The fortress was in ruins. In fact, the corridor she had just existed was supposed to lead to a large open platform. Most of the platform was gone, however. From here, she could look down all the way to the base of the fortress, where there was a giant pile of rubble. She also witnessed Aripa, still in her transformed state, destroying the fake moon. Moments later, she started to revert to her normal form.

Once Tidane had landed on the ground near Aripa, she could see that the latter was pretty beat up. She was sitting on the ground, apparently exhausted, but also seemingly very pleased with herself. Her armor was cracked and she was covered in grime and blood. Despite this, she almost had an ear to ear smile on her face. She reminded Tidane of a mischievous little brat who had just gotten exactly what she wanted.

When Tidane showed her the stone, Aripa suddenly jumped up and wrapped her arms tightly around the former's waist. The force of the jump caused Tidane to be knocked to the ground for the second time today. Only for a moment did Tidane think that Aripa might have become hostile. However, she soon realized Aripa was hugging her out of joy. At first Tidane wanted to get her off, not wanting to be smudged in blood and grime as well. But when she heard her admitting she was her new best friend, Tidane was overcome with such a warm feeling inside, that she closed her eyes and quietly hugged her back.


	13. The void

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

**Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free story. If there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

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><p><span>Chapter 13: The void<span>

At the outpost on planet #57 of Frieza's empire, a humanoid octopus-like alien with purple skin and yellow spots was making his way through a busy corridor. He was pushing a small supply cart in front of him, and kept politely telling people to move out of the way. The orange colored and brightly lit corridor was currently filled with troops and other personnel, due to the fact there was a rotation in work shifts taking place. Most of them gave him an irritated look, but otherwise paid no attention to him and his cart. Peorr knew his timing was awful, but he could not risk letting those two maniacs out of his sight for too long.

He pushed the cart towards the end of the corridor, after which he took a right turn to head towards the elevators. After boarding one, he took it down all the way to the deepest basement level. The next corridor he entered was narrower and less brightly lit than the previous one. It was completely deserted. There were a lot of doors, which lead to various storage and utility rooms. Most of them had signs indicating their function. Peorr suddenly stopped at a seemingly random door. The sign indicated that the room was for experimental medical technology. However, Peorr knew better. It was only a ruse thought up by his colleague Lakeeme.

Peorr could facepalm every time he thought back to how Lakeeme had managed to get permission to use this room. He had somehow convinced the outpost commander that he had many ideas on how to improve the recovery tank principle, and that he could use some space for his experiments. Despite not being a scientist, nor particularly educated, nor particularly liked by the commander, the latter had somehow agreed to give him a small room in the basement and a limited budget. In Peorr's opinion, it had been pure luck that the commander had agreed. However, Lakeeme had kept insisting it had all happened because of his charming personality and skill of persuasion.

Peorr carefully looked first to his left side, then to his right side. After drawing the conclusion that there was no-one in the vicinity, he knocked on the door a few times, before punching in the security code. When the door opened, he hoped he wouldn't find a heap of debris inside. However, once he had taken a look inside, he could breathe easily. It wasn't as bad as he had imagined. Inside the room, there was a single recovery tank unit. Beside it was a mobile hygiene compartment, some furniture and a few closets. Everything was still intact. The recovery tank was currently in use, but its occupant was very obviously already healed. The one inside it was Aripa. Normally, a person would sit stationary in the center of the tank. But she now seemed to be amusing herself by swimming around and occasionally inhaling a fresh breath of air from the mask she had discarded.

Annoyed, Peorr rolled the cart inside, closed the door, and knocked on the glass of the tank a few times, telling her sternly he was going to initiate the draining sequence. She promptly gave him the middle finger, but nonetheless remained surprisingly calm. Her unpredictability bothered Peorr, as did her tendency to troll him. She knew quite well by now he wasn't a doctor, only an engineer. He wasn't used to dealing with naked aliens.

After he pushed a few buttons on the console, while muttering to himself about Aripa's childish behavior, he turned his attention to the other Saiyan in the room: Tidane. She was standing in front of a small mirror with her back turned towards him. She had already cleaned herself and had pulled on new black trousers and a black tank top. While she was drying her hair with a towel, Peorr opened up the supply cart and removed a shiny new chest armor piece. It was a model for females, colored black and teal, with a shoulder pad on the right side and a shoulder strap on the left side. This was exactly like Tidane's previous one.

Peorr grumpily told her she was lucky he had managed to find what she had requested. Tidane looked over her shoulder for a second to confirm it was indeed the right one. She then simply told him to leave it on the table. Peorr did what she asked, but asked himself inside his head why he was doing this. Why was he helping them? He guessed that deep down in his subconscious mind he must believe that helping these two Saiyans was the right thing to do. However, in his conscious mind, he saw nothing but dangers lurking in every corner. In the PTO, the punishment for defiance was execution without even the pretense of a trial. If he made one mistake, he could very well end up dead.

While Peorr unloaded the rest of the supplies from the cart, the recovery tank finished draining all the fluid and promptly opened itself. Aripa stepped out, and quickly snatched a towel from the nearby table. As she was wrapping it around herself, she asked Tidane if the wound on her back still hurt. Tidane shook her head and insisted she was fine. Aripa was not convinced though. She recommended to Tidane to just go into the tank. It would be far more relaxing than letting the wound heal the old fashioned way. Aripa admitted that she couldn't get enough of this routine. Getting bruised and bloodied in battle and then going into the tank, knowing that while it soothed her body, it would increase her strength was simply a blissful experience. When she finished her short speech, she threw her towel away and turned to Peorr, who instantly became petrified.

As Aripa was berating Peorr for not bringing an armor piece that was exactly like she had requested, Tidane looked over her shoulder. The moment she saw Aripa's bare backside, she hurriedly turned her head back again and began blushing. It was quite clear to her that Aripa wasn't afraid of showing her body. She seemed to have so much confidence in everything about herself; her actions as well as her body. Tidane wanted to know what her secret was, but didn't dare to ask it directly. All she dared to do was look over her shoulder one more time. Aripa was now holding the armor piece in front of her, seemingly to judge if it was worth wearing.

Tidane let her eyes linger for a moment, while she thought about how she was going to ask Aripa about her confidence. Suddenly, she was snapped to full awareness when Aripa calmly asked why she was staring at her. Tidane instantly turned her head back and stumbled over words to give an explanation, while her face turned red. Before she managed to form a cohesive sentence, Aripa told her it was alright. Then, she proudly announced that Tidane could look at her all she wanted, because they were friends now. Tidane simply looked ahead in embarrassment and remained silent. Just what exactly was Aripa's definition of a friend? She only dared to look at Aripa again when the latter finally pulled on some clothes.

A few minutes later, after having completely emptied his supply cart, Peorr left the room to resume his regular schedule. Both Aripa and Tidane felt it was time to take some rest now that they had the chance. There were no real beds in the room, but they managed to improvise two beds on the floor made out of sheets, towels and some pillows. It was the best Tidane had seen in a long time and she was pretty tired. Not surprisingly, it didn't take long for her to fall asleep.

The surprise came when Tidane was awoken by a sensation of something foreign pressing against her. When she turned herself over, she realized that Aripa had found her way into her bed. She could clearly see her face in the dim blue light which was generated by the equipment in the room. Aripa appeared to be wide awake, and was now simply lying flat on her back, staring at her. It was quickly obvious to Tidane there was something strange going on. Aripa then whispered that she just wanted to feel the warmth of another person and asked Tidane if she was okay with this. This made the latter blush again, although this time it wasn't visible due to the dim lighting. Despite preferring to sleep alone, she lied down on her side again, and allowed Aripa to press herself against her. She was surprised, but also curious about this unexpected behavior, and instead of trying to go back to sleep, she asked Aripa what was wrong.

Aripa responded by wrapping her arms, legs and even her tail around Tidane. Normally Tidane didn't like or allow such physical contact from anyone, but the fact that Aripa was shivering changed her mind. When Aripa didn't give an immediate answer to her question, Tidane asked how it was possible that she was feeling cold. The room was small, poorly ventilated, and full of equipment, which could only be partially turned off. It was reasonably warm in here, and yet she was shivering like it was freezing. The response she got to this question was even more unexpected.

With a shaking voice, Aripa carefully revealed that she had been thinking a lot about the future lately. The thing she feared the most, was to be the last Saiyan to die. She kept having nightmares about being all alone just before she would die. When Tidane asked if Frieza was the one who was responsible for killing her in the dream, Aripa remained quiet. A moment later, she responded that Frieza wasn't there in the dream. There was only a void. A dark, cold and empty void drained of all energy. She felt really weak and miserable in the dream. Although she didn't know what had caused her death, she just knew the void had something to do with it. The scary thing was that when she woke up from this dream, the feeling of misery and dread did not disappear, as if the void had followed her into the real world. It was as if she still was about to die.

Tidane sat up to face Aripa, who was now in tears. For a moment, Tidane thought she had to be dreaming herself, because the Aripa she knew would never show this much weakness. All her confidence now seemed to be vaporized. Up until now, Tidane had believed that out of the two of them, Aripa had been the toughest one. Although she knew full well of the imminent extinction of their race on the long term, Tidane had never really thought about the future so intensely. She figured that in their situation, thinking too much about the future would only cause stress. It was better to focus on what was going on right now. Nevertheless, the thought of being the last one to die gave her a feeling of dread as well.

While she allowed Aripa to cry on her shoulder, she thought about what to say to her. It was difficult for her not to become emotional as well. The feeling of dread coupled with Aripa letting her 'shield' down certainly wasn't helping. Quite randomly, she thought about Aripa's Saibaman for a moment. If it hadn't been for this creature, her memory would most likely have been altered by the Stone of Ytmium. As Aripa was still sobbing onto her shoulder, Tidane began telling her what the Saibaman had done. She also called attention to the fact that it seemed to be more intelligent than a normal one, because it had anticipated correctly how to block the stone's effects. After she told Aripa this, Tidane suggested they honor the creature as a real team member of theirs by giving it a proper name. Aripa then managed to look up. Despite being all teary-eyed, she gave a slight smile and insisted that Tidane be the one to choose a name.

After thinking for a few moments, Tidane decided to name him Rutaba, after her hunchbacked, scarred, one-eyed and toothless grandfather who had passed away long ago. She revealed that she had chosen this name because the Saibaman reminded her mainly of his appearance, but also somewhat of his great knowledge and cunning. As a child, she used to be frightened of her grandfather, but eventually it had worn off. After she had gotten over his rugged appearance, she had learned many things from him. Right now, his knowledge still lived through her. If Aripa and she would hold on to each other and if they would keep alive the memories of those who were gone, then perhaps when the time finally came, they did not have to die alone.


	14. Two ships

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

**Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free story. If there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

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><p><span>Chapter 14: Two ships<span>

On the planet XZ-457, at the campsite of the Saiyans, a new morning had dawned. Chayandi had been the first one to awake. She had already left the camp while the others had still been sleeping. Right now, she was gathering fruits to supplement the ever diminishing food stock back at camp. With each day that passed, it became more difficult to gather new food. The trees near their camp were picked clean, and the animals in the area had begun to move out. This was why she had to go quite far to be able to find anything. Also, if she hadn't had a basket with her, she wouldn't have had an effective way to transport all the fruits she gathered. It was therefore a good thing that someone from an older generation, like Sorra, was with their group to make these kinds of things. Chayandi had a feeling that no-one of her age could have made such a basket. The new generation had become used to the imported goods and assistant personnel that had arrived in large numbers after Frieza had annexed planet Vegeta.

When Chayandi was flying back to camp, carrying a full basket, she unexpectedly encountered Tarnece, who approached from her left side. After both of them stopped in mid-air, it was immediately clear to Chayandi that something was going on. Tarnece had a very serious expression on his face and looked slightly pale. All he could say was that she had to come with him. Slightly doubtful of his intensions, Chayandi asked why. Tarnece insisted that she wouldn't believe it if he would just tell her. She had to see it for herself. This prompted Chayandi to ask if they were going somewhere dangerous. Strangely, Tarnece was hesitant with his answer. He soon admitted that he wasn't quite sure about it.

Intrigued by the mysterious situation, Chayandi decided to go with him. While flying, Tarnece let slip some clues as to what was going on. He asked Chayandi if she realized that Daika was getting better at speaking the basic language at an unusually fast pace. It appeared she was using more complex words and sentences every day. Chayandi fully agreed. She had never known another Saiyan who could learn as fast as her. Now, they could almost have a normal conversation with her.

But Chayandi then pointed out to Tarnece that despite being a quick learner, Daika never seemed to have anything interesting to say. She usually only gave lengthy comments on simple and random things, such as how the clouds looked, or how the ground smelled. Tarnece replied that the situation had escalated to a whole new level this morning. He believed she was now ready to tell them who she was and where she had come from. However, he also added that he wasn't so sure he wanted to hear the full story. This last sentence caused multiple questions to pop up in Chayandi's mind. For a moment, it seemed to her that Tarnece actually sounded scared. How exactly could Tarnece, who was ever proud of his manliness, become scared of a tame girl like Daika?

Before Chayandi got any answers, they arrived in an area full of large flat rocks. Normally, the rocks would not have been very noteworthy, but these ones were covered with strange and unnatural patterns. After they landed, she could see Daika standing near one such rock. The latter was busy applying brightly colored paint. Chayandi didn't know where Daika had gotten the paint, and guessed she had most likely made it herself. At first glance, it seemed the patterns Daika had created consisted of random patches of yellow, red, and black. However, if one let one's eyes get accustomed to the style and colors, it became possible to recognize faces and other Saiyan-like features. Soon, it became clear to Chayandi that nearly all paintings displayed the violent slaughter of multiple individuals, primarily of Saiyan males. They were gutted, beheaded or ripped apart in various ways by a tall shadowy figure. Blood and guts were everywhere. Not one of them seemed to have been able to put up a decent fight. The remaining paintings depicted a few Saiyan females suffering the same fate, while a large group of females was cowering in the background. They seemed to have been herded together by the shadowy figure as if they were cattle.

The final painting, the one Daika had finished while Chayandi had been preoccupied staring at the other ones, depicted the shadowy figure in more detail. The figure was sitting on the ground, with a severed limb in its claws. There seemed to be hundreds of snakes or large worms sprouting from its back. The figure was looking over its shoulder with yellow eyes. Judging from the red around the location where one would expect a mouth to be, it must have been ripping the flesh from the limb using its sharp fangs. However, something else had caught its attention, thus it was looking directly at whatever had disturbed it. The yellow eyes and the red mouth and chin were its only facial features.

After a long silence, Daika screamed at the top of her lungs that she hated 'Jijimaka' more than anything in the universe. She stomped the ground with her feet while she screamed, as a child throwing a tantrum would do. Then she fell limp to the ground. Tarnece was too stunned by the entire situation to do anything, while Chayandi was immediately alerted, and knelt down to help her. She was still breathing and Chayandi carefully sat her up with her back against the nearest rock. Daika then looked relieved as if a large burden had just been lifted from her shoulders. Startled, Chayandi asked if she was alright, to which Daika replied with a quick nod. Chayandi hoped that Daika meant it. If Daika had had a seizure or something like that, they would not have known what to do. Nevertheless, it looked like Tarnece had been right. Now it did seem like Daika was ready to explain her past to them. This was why Chayandi gently asked what the paintings were. Were they depictions of actual events or just fantasy? Daika began telling them what had happened to her.

She couldn't remember much of her childhood or early adolescent life. However, she did very clearly remember more recent events. She knew that the events related to the paintings had happened in a brief period time, but to her it had seemed to last forever.

From her perspective, it all began with two ships. These were two very old spaceships which were traveling to a distant world. Each ship carried one clan of Saiyans. No matter how much time passed, no matter how many stops they made, the elders and the elites always told everyone that they had not yet reached the end of their journey. At that time, no-one was more affected by this endless voyage than her very own father. His name was Jijimaka and he was possibly the tallest of all Saiyans on both ships. He had always been considered an outsider by both clans, not because of his height, but because of his tendency to blatantly go against both clans' customs. Whereas monogamous relationships were the norm for their people, Jijimaka forced the clan leaders to accept his claiming of two female mates at the same time. To top it off, his mates were from different clans. Any ordinary Saiyan would not have gotten away with this, but Jijimaka was not at all ordinary. Because of his great strength and unstable behavior, there was no-one who could really put a stop to his actions.

Daika remembered that the longer the journey to the next stop lasted, the more unstable his behavior became. She believed that this was why the ships stopped at nearby planets so often. All these stops made their ultimate destination seem even further away than it had already been. Eventually, the stops didn't have any positive effect anymore on Jijimaka's behavior. During the second to last stop that Daika could remember, Jijimaka had claimed three additional mates. By this time, nearly everyone from both ships despised him and the fact that he seemed convinced he had the divine right to claim this many females for himself. There were many who challenged him during this stop, but none managed to defeat him in a fight. He was becoming so powerful it was unnatural. Some even believed he was using magic to fuel his power.

Whatever the case was, when he defeated the challengers, Jijimaka had great difficulty stopping himself from delivering the killing blows. He deeply hated the challengers, but he did not want the spaceships to leave him behind, so he did not kill his own kind. However, by the time the ships resumed the journey again, he was keeping in so much anger that it was clear he was going to burst soon. Daika had never understood just where this anger was coming from, though. After all, he was taking what was simply not rightfully his, so all resistance against him was to be expected.

Just before the final stop which Daika could remember, Jijimaka had snapped completely. For some reason, he had become convinced that he was destined to mate with all females and kill all other males if they posed a threat. He also believed that this was his right for being the successor to the legendary 'Super' Saiyan. According to the myth the elders had once told her, the first Super Saiyan had supposedly been responsible for the destruction of their home world and had thus been the direct cause for the space journey their race was making. Although Jijimaka was abnormally strong, Daika did not believe he was a Super Saiyan. For one, the form of his transformation under the full moon wasn't different compared to the others. Also, he did not have any other special abilities that Daika had ever heard of, or had witnessed firsthand.

When the ships had finally landed again, Jijimaka forced a group of females to come with him so that he could start his own clan and colonize this planet. Naturally, there was a lot of resistance. Many males whose mate had been stolen by Jijimaka challenged him. They took him on together, but it didn't make a difference. One by one they were slaughtered by Jijimaka, who seemed to have a limitless supply of energy. He didn't just kill them; he delighted in making them suffer before he would kill them gruesomely in strangely creative ways. The females tried to help them out, but those who did suffered the same fate. The rest of the females in the group, including Daika herself, had no choice but to go with Jijimaka if they wanted to live. As a warning to everyone, he collected the tails from all the fallen Saiyans and forced several females to sew them together into a coat, which he would always wear from that point onwards.

As they were leaving the vicinity of the ships, Daika could hear the voices of several males shouting to Jijimaka that they would not give up until he was dead and every last female was returned to them. Although Daika couldn't see to whom the voices belonged, she had a feeling it were the princes who had made this bold statement. That was when she had started hoping that one of the princes would eventually come to save her.

After leaving the ships, the group trekked across the planet until they found an oasis which Jijimaka deemed suitable to function as their new home. After a few days at the oasis, Jijimaka began to behave even more strangely. He would disappear for hours and then suddenly show up out of nowhere. He started to relax his strict guarding of the females. In fact, some of those in the group seized this opportunity to escape. Daika didn't know what had happened to them, because this had taken place on the final day which she could remember before being rescued by 'prince' Korat.

On this final day, Jijimaka had gone to the edge of the oasis and had growled at the others to leave him alone. Daika admitted that it was only on this day she had finally worked up enough courage and strength to go and confront Jijimaka as daughter to father for once. Perhaps it had been foolish and even suicidal, but she had been fed up by the entire situation. She had slowly and carefully approached him, while he had been sitting on the ground by himself. Just when she realized he was ripping the flesh with his teeth from what appeared to be someone's arm, she stepped on a brittle rock. The resulting cracking sound made Jijimaka look over his shoulder, the entire lower half of his face covered in blood. She instantly froze; she had never been so scared in her entire life. Then something had happened, which she couldn't explain. Although she had frozen her movement out of shock initially, she quickly realized she was now physically unable to move. After that, everything had gone black. She believed that she might have had a few dreams and nightmares before awakening in a cloud of dust and finally meeting her savior Korat.

When Daika reached the end of the story she wanted to tell, she stared at the ground in silence for a moment. Chayandi immediately took the opportunity to walk over to her and give her a hug. Daika did not object. She rested her head on Chayandi's shoulder. Tarnece, who was still pale-faced, clearly shocked by all the things he just heard, noticed Chayandi winking at him. He promptly got up and awkwardly flung his arms around the two women. The effect was what Chayandi had been hoping for, though. Daika realized that she hadn't had to deal with the ordeal all by herself. She whispered to Chayandi and Tarnece that she was glad to have them as her friends.

Back at the camp, Ullicu had been wondering where the others had disappeared to. He thought he had told them yesterday that he wanted to start another training session early in the morning. Perhaps they didn't feel like training today. Ullicu was currently sitting atop a boulder and decided to stay right here until they would show up. To spend the time, he lighted his self-made smoking pipe with a flick of his fingers. He had been busy fashioning it from a piece of wood for a few days. Today, it was finally ready to be tested out. After a few draws, he concluded that his design was okay, but the leaves tasted excellent.

However, the others showed up sooner than he had expected. Sorra called his name from afar, and he turned his head to see what was going on. Then she shouted to him that Daika had revealed where she had come from. In astonishment, Ullicu accidently inhaled the smoke into his lungs. He nearly fell off his boulder in a coughing fit, before finally being able to speak again. He wanted to ask Sorra where Daika was now, but by that time the entire group had arrived.

To spare Daika from having to recount her story, Chayandi did it for her. Sorra and Ullicu listened attentively. While Chayandi talked, Daika clutched Tarnece silently. Her grip on his arm tightened every time Chayandi reached a part that frightened her. Ullicu continued smoking his pipe, even after Chayandi finished and no-one said anything for a moment. Sorra went over to Daika to comfort her, and soon led her away from the others, presumably to shield her from the unavoidable discussion that was about to take place.

Tarnece was the first to break the silence. He called it a sick story; he hadn't known Saiyans were capable of doing that to one another. Normally, such violence was directed at their enemies, not at their own kind. However, Ullicu responded that this story didn't surprise him at all. He called attention to the fact that Tarnece was too young to have a first-hand experience with the civil war, in which Ullicu himself had fought on the front lines. The violence in this tale wasn't what had caught his attention, though. He asked the others not to interrupt him while he would pour out everything currently on his mind.

What most intrigued him about this information were several aspects. Firstly, he believed that Daika's story confirmed his theory about her being at least seven to eight generations old. He had reached this conclusion because Daika couldn't remember ever having a home planet and because she had mentioned that the Super Saiyan of legend had been responsible for forcing them to start their journey. This scenario didn't fit anywhere else in their species' history, except in the time period from before they had arrived on planet Vegeta. This event had happened around seven to eight generations ago according to the oral history he was familiar with.

The second aspect that intrigued him was Daika explicitly mentioning two ships, while in the end only one ship had arrived at planet Vegeta according to the legends. Wherever the second ship had gone to, it had never arrived on Vegeta, nor had any trace of it ever been found during any Saiyan expedition into the far reaches of space.

The third intriguing aspect was that Daika was most likely not aware that she had been sealed into a statue. From her perspective, she hadn't been able to see what had happened to her during her final encounter with Jijimaka. Also unclear was who had been responsible for it. Daika's account pointed to Jijimaka as the one responsible, but Ullicu did not know how a Saiyan could have acquired such a skill. It had to be some form of hibernation, because right now Daika was still young and it seemed she was not aware that such a long period of time had passed.

The fourth aspect that intrigued him was Jijimaka's fate. Daika hadn't witnessed how it had all turned out. So where had he disappeared to? The only sources Ullicu knew of that described a 'creature' comparable to Jijimaka, were children's bedtime stories. But even those were open-ended, intended to keep children alert and sharp and prevent them from getting soft. Perhaps Jijimaka had hijacked the other ship, or maybe the other ship had been destroyed in a trap to kill Jijimaka. There were so many different ways this could have ended. Ullicu concluded his monologue by admitting that it might even be possible that Jijimaka himself had been sealed into a statue. This would mean that it was possible he was still somewhere on that planet.


	15. Lord Siglar

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

**Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free story. If there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

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><p><span>Chapter 15: Lord Siglar<span>

Korat opened his eyes to find himself in strange and unknown surroundings. He could not remember how he had arrived here. The ground was bright white and the sky was pitch-black. It didn't look like the environment of a planet, nor like the inside of a room or a spaceship. There was nothing else to see except the ground and the sky. Soon, he concluded that there was hardly anything ordinary about this place. There seemed to be gravity and breathable air, although these were twisted and warped in a way he could not quite fathom. There was just something off about them.

Korat stood up and realized that he was completely naked. How he had ended up in this state was also something he could not remember. At the very least his body was still whole, his tail included. He didn't care about having no clothes, though. To him, it was far more important to find out where he was. Korat looked around, but it was no use. There was no end to this place; it all looked the same. He levitated himself upwards and it still did not provide him with any clues. That was when he heard a monstrous growl in the distance. He quickly turned around, but there was nothing. More growls followed, this time coming from multiple directions. He recognized them as belonging to Saiyans who were transformed into their Great Ape forms. They seemed to be invisible somehow. The growls appeared to draw nearer every second. Finally, he noticed that the sounds were now coming from his own mouth. This was something he could not control. All of a sudden, his body started transforming. His muscles began to grow, and brown fur began to cover his body.

The experience of transforming was nothing new to him, but there was something off about this as well. He hadn't looked at a full moon, or any fake one. So how was this transformation happening? How was he doing it? He had never heard of a Saiyan ever transforming into this form without a source of Blutz Waves. The source had to be either a full moon, or the fake moon energy technique. This form and those special waves had always been solidly interlinked with each other. It was impossible to transform without the waves being present, and yet he was doing it.

After completing the transformation, Korat felt that he was being pulled away from his body by a sudden violent shock. It was then that he recognized the familiar sound of the engines of Racol's Namekian spaceship. At first the sound appeared to be far away, but soon it became clear and loud enough that it seemed he was back inside the ship. He then opened his eyes and saw the familiar dark and hollow interior. His own space pod was still parked in the back. Korat realized he was sitting on the ground in his normal form wearing his PTO issued armor. Everything seemed to be back to normal.

Korat got up and slowly walked to the pilot's chair. He still wasn't completely sure this was real. Racol was carefully piloting the ship. He was speaking the Namekian language as he instructed the ship's computer. Korat could see through the front window that the ship occasionally fired its outboard lasers to destroy nearby asteroids. Each of these blasts caused a shock to be felt inside the ship. When Racol noticed Korat standing beside his chair, the former remarked calmly that he was impressed. Korat frowned, not understanding him. Racol asked him to wait for just a few more moments. He insisted that they were almost through the asteroid field surrounding the planet Sla'ak-Namek, his home. Korat silently looked on as Racol continued instructing the computer, and the ship continued to fire its lasers, until there were no more asteroids to be seen. Through the window, a violet colored sphere could now be clearly seen. It grew larger by the second as the ship approached.

Racol then turned his attention to him, and remarked that he was impressed by the deep trance Korat had been in. He revealed that he had sensed a tremendous power within him. Though it had disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, it was a power at least twice as big as his usual level. Korat didn't know what to think or say. At least it appeared he was back in the real world. He did remember having resumed his mind training today, but something like this had never happened before. First he had had a vision of the Great Ape transformation without a source of Blutz Waves, and now Racol was telling him his power had briefly increased while he had been sitting there, motionless. He could not make sense of any of this; not yet anyway. Then he thought about something else. How did Racol know his power had increased? He asked Racol this question and the latter answered casually that he could sense the power level of any being as easily as he could see or hear. It was just another sense to him.

Sensing power levels without a scouter sounded impossible to Korat, mostly because he had always associated sensing power with the scouter device. If it was indeed possible for Racol to have this ability without having to use an external device, then a Saiyan might be capable of it as well. He had to find out. And if the impossible was possible, what would this mean for the Great Ape transformation? Was it really possible to transform into this form at will? He had to find this out as well. Mastering these abilities would certainly not be easy; otherwise many other Saiyans would have done so in the past. He definitely had to continue his mind training. Perhaps these were the long lost steps towards achieving the Saiyan ability of legend: the Super Saiyan status.

Now that Korat had gained these new insights, he almost didn't care anymore about visiting Racol's planet. He wanted to postpone it. Unfortunately, the spacecraft was already entering the planet's atmosphere, so he did not say anything about his thoughts to Racol. The ship began ploughing through what seemed to be a relatively thick atmosphere. Korat grabbed the side of the pilot's chair and held on as the ship began shaking. As seen from the window, there were violet colored clouds everywhere. Soon, they were at a low enough altitude to see the dark brown and green colored surface. It consisted mostly of swamps. Racol flew the ship in a straight horizontal line towards the only indication of civilization on the planet. Several buildings appeared in view. They were white and round and reminded of the appearance of the spacecraft they were on. Korat had little doubt that there were more Namekians living here. The question was if they could be trusted.

The ship landed neatly on a dedicated landing pad next to the largest building. Once they had exited the ship using the bottom door, Korat noticed an unknown Namekian in the vicinity of the ship. The instant he saw Korat, the Namekian assumed a fighting stance, and began shouting with a loud and deep voice. These were words Korat did not understand, but they sounded like uttered threats. Korat prepared to defend himself, but Racol gestured for him to back down. The two Namekians then engaged in an intense conversation in their native language. It seemed to take Racol some effort to convince the other Namekian that Korat wasn't their enemy.

Eventually, the unknown Namekian assumed a normal stance again. He looked Korat in the eyes, spoke some more words, laughed loudly, and walked past them towards one of the other buildings. Korat observed that this Namekian, besides having green skin and pointy ears, looked quite different compared to Racol. This one was at least two heads taller with a far more muscled physique. He also wore some sort of dark purple uniform, with a large encircled symbol on his chest. Racol then spoke to Korat in the galactic basic language, revealing that they had just met his eldest brother Lescar, who certainly didn't like strangers. Korat nodded silently. He believed he understood what was going on here. Korat knew he would probably have reacted the same way, had an unknown Namekian landed on _his_ doorstep.

Next, they went inside the largest building. The interior was mostly open, empty, and badly lit. There were two spacecraft in here, both the same design as Racol's spacecraft. One appeared to be completed; the other appeared to be still under construction since it was missing the glass of its windows and some other parts of its hull. Racol called out the word 'Bosaba' a few times. It wasn't long before another Namekian stuck his head out of one of the windows of the incomplete spacecraft. While the Namekian leapt down from the ship, Racol told Korat that this was his older brother Bosaba. Korat could see that this Namekian was about as tall as Racol, but at least twice as wide and with a round belly. Bosaba approached them warily, while using an old cloth to clean the grime off his hands. Racol began speaking, explaining to him who this visitor was. Bosaba didn't say anything, however. He just listened to Racol with a slightly open mouth and occasionally eyed Korat with a perplexed expression on his face. When Racol had finished, Bosaba spoke a few Namekian words in a voice which barely had any volume. He then turned around and went back to work on the ship.

Racol and Korat followed a corridor that went from the hangar to the building where Siglar himself resided. The inside of his residence was brightly lit. The walls were decorated with strange abstract patterns. It took Korat's eyes a few moments to adjust to these surroundings. Racol walked up front and led him to a large chamber. Inside, there were three Namekians. The first was Lescar, who appeared to have informed the other two of their guest's arrival. The second Namekian was standing with his back against a wall, almost as if waiting for orders. He was short and skinny and the weakest looking one in Korat's opinion.

Seated in the middle of the chamber, upon a large throne that seemed to be made out of alien skulls and bones, there was another Namekian. He looked very old, having many wrinkles and a dull green skin color, unlike the smooth bright green skin of all the others Korat had met. If this old Namekian would stand up, Korat estimated that he would be about as tall as Lescar, maybe even taller. He looked very skinny and fragile, though, and seemingly unable to get up from his throne anymore. Although he had his eyes closed, he appeared to have heard or otherwise sensed them coming in, as he welcomed them loudly.

The frail old Namekian had a loud and deep voice, much like Lescar had. He made large gestures in the air with his hands and had exaggerated facial expressions as he spoke in the basic language. First, he welcomed back Racol and remarked that he hoped his journey had made him wiser and more skilled. Racol bowed lightly, and informed his father he was certainly right about that. The old Namekian then turned his attention to Korat. He introduced himself as the good lord Siglar, son of Sla'ak, and ruler of this planet. Korat was too proud to even consider bowing for him. He simply wondered silently why so many in the galaxy insisted on giving themselves the title 'lord'. Just a short while ago, he had had to deal with that 'lord' Bolwor, and now he was face to face with this guy, yet another self-styled lord. After a brief moment of silence, Racol introduced Korat to Siglar.

Lord Siglar admitted that he was quite unprepared for this moment. He hadn't expected to ever encounter a Saiyan again in his lifetime. He had such questions to ask and such stories to share, but right now he was feeling ill, and tired. He coughed loudly a couple of times, while nearly falling off his throne each time he coughed. He did not switch to the Namekian language as he ordered Lucama, the short and skinny Namekian, to get him some water at once. Lucama, who was presumably Racol's youngest brother, was startled and hurried towards a corner of the chamber where there were several pots standing. Siglar continued speaking to Korat, and offered him accommodation to spend the night here. Tomorrow, they could resume this meeting. At that moment, Lescar stepped forward, apparently to escort them out of the chamber. Korat went along for now. He saw no reason to challenge these Namekians, before having the chance to learn more about them.

After making a brief stop by Racol's spacecraft in order to take some of his food with him, Korat followed Racol to the guest room inside one of round white buildings. When Korat began stuffing himself, Racol told him he had to go assist his father and promptly left the room. He then quickly returned to Siglar's throne chamber. It appeared that Siglar was fine now, sitting more steadily on his throne. The moment Racol shut the door behind him, Siglar burst out in anger. He demanded to know why Racol had brought one of _them_ here; reminding him that he had barely escaped with his life, last time he had run into a Saiyan.

Racol defended Korat, explaining that the latter had saved his life and that Korat's group had not been aggressive towards him. He had brought Korat here so that they could learn more about the Saiyan species. Siglar slammed his fist onto the elbow rest of his throne a couple of times, and declared it all nonsense. Racol then admitted that he had twisted the truth when he had told the Saiyans about his knowledge of their kind in order to gain their favor. Lord Siglar thought about this for a moment, and then declared it to be a brilliant move. He revealed that he had learned of the destruction of their home planet and asked Racol to tell him how many there were left. Racol admitted that so far he had met around six of them, though he believed there were a few more he hadn't seen yet. Lord Siglar gave a satisfied nod. He urged Racol that they had to continue this charade to gain their trust, so that they could work towards cornering them in order to kill them all at once. Racol did not share his father's enthusiasm, reminding him that the Saiyans would be nigh unstoppable if they transformed into their ape forms. Lord Siglar simply threw his head back and laughed loudly.

Afterwards, he informed Racol that his experiments had finally paid off. Racol widened his eyes in disbelief. He asked if Siglar had finally succeeded in recreating the crowning achievement of the Namekian Dragon clan. Had he finally succeeded in creating a set of Dragon Balls? Siglar shook his head in slight disappointment, but then revealed that he had discovered an important stepping stone in the process. He had learned how to give a Namekian the ability to transform himself into a dragon. Lescar had already managed to transform once, and he was busy trying to master it. This was an ability which they could all learn, so that they would never again be in a position to be trampled by any Saiyan.


	16. A new ally

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

**Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free story. If there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

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><p><span>Chapter 16: A new ally<span>

Ullicu had decided it was time to educate the group with some theory about battle tactics. This had led him to thinking up a lecture on tactics that were commonly used by Saiyan squads when facing a small number of relatively strong opponents. Currently, he was explaining the finer details of the subject. He was standing in front of a smooth rock wall, on which he had used a white rock to draw a few illustrations to provide additional visual information about the subject. The others were sitting all around him. Even Daika had joined in.

Daika had become quite capable of understanding the contemporary Saiyan language and the galactic basic language. However, Ullicu had learned that she still had a very short attention span for things that did not interest her. Right now, she was sitting with the group, but she wasn't listening to him anymore. Instead, she was arranging small rocks in the sand into peculiar patterns, using both her hands and her tail. After a few verbal attempts, Ullicu had given up trying to get her to focus. He hoped that he could find another way in which she would be useful to them.

Tarnece also wasn't exactly thrilled by what Ullicu was trying to teach them. He seemed to be bored even. Every now and then, he looked at Ullicu and the illustrations. However, most of his attention went to his surroundings. He spent half the time looking at Chayandi, and spent another significant amount looking into random other directions, as if not wanting to make it too obvious he was staring at her. Ullicu saw right through this, though he kept silent about it.

Only two pairs of eyes were really focused on him. The first pair belonged to Sorra, who was looking straight into his eyes, while resting her chin on her hands. Though at first glance she appeared to be very interested and listening intently, Ullicu realized that something else was going on. He recognized that look on her face. He had a feeling she wanted something else from him that had nothing to do with the subject he was lecturing about. Unfortunately for her, he wasn't going to go along with it. He had become celibate after the death of his wife, and he wasn't planning on changing his mind about it.

The only one who seemed to be genuinely interested in what he had to say was Chayandi. She appeared to be completely oblivious to the fact that Tarnece was staring at her. She had quite a serious expression on her face. Also, she was the only one who asked Ullicu any questions in order to better understand the content. It was because of her that Ullicu kept continuing his lecture for longer than he had intended. He believed he had found a good way to stimulate her interest in battle.

When Ullicu was right in the middle of answering one of Chayandi's questions, the background silence was suddenly disrupted. The thundering noise of a spacecraft entering the atmosphere could be heard. This quickly alarmed Ullicu and the rest. Chayandi was the first to spot it. She called out and pointed to the craft coming out of the clouds in the distance. Almost as soon as the others spotted it too, a loud voice could be heard. It was apparently coming from the vessel, being broadcast over a loudspeaker. The male-sounding voice urged them not to attack, because he was on their side. He further explained that he had come back with the supplies he had promised. Ullicu then realized who they were dealing with here. It was that muscular and red-haired alien who had accompanied Aripa on her 'visit' to this planet. It was the one who called himself Lakeeme. Ullicu immediately warned the group not to attack the craft, or any of the occupants.

Shortly thereafter, the group of Saiyans arrived at the landing site of the spacecraft. The craft wasn't a regular round one-person space pod. It was a somewhat larger craft, which looked like a miniature version of Frieza's command ship; a flattened sphere with a white, black and yellow hull and a central window with purple glass. It had touched down on four claw-like landing legs. The door promptly opened and Lakeeme stepped out of the craft, just like Ullicu had deduced.

Lakeeme greeted the group and looked somewhat proud of himself, as he lifted his chin up higher than he had done the first time he had met the group. He also seemed to be pleased by the slightly confused face of Ullicu, who had not expected to ever see him again. Lakeeme quickly removed a box from the spacecraft and opened it to show its contents. Sorra and Daika were both captivated by what they saw and hurried forward to the box. A moment later, Ullicu could see Sorra putting a scouter with a blue glass on her face. Daika took one with a red glass from the box, but instead of putting it on her face she held it under her nose. The smell of the newly assembled device fascinated her.

While Sorra decided to test her scouter on Tarnece, Lakeeme insisted to everyone that these were modified scouters which the PTO could not trace nor tap into in order to listen to a conversation. To Ullicu, it seemed that Lakeeme had kept his promise. He had asked him to bring a batch of untraceable scouters to them and here they were. Soon, Tarnece and Chayandi had both acquired a scouter with a green glass. Lakeeme then walked over to Ullicu, and extended his hand again, just like he had done before. He slightly tilted his head and asked if they had an alliance now. Ullicu replied by nodding calmly and shaking Lakeeme's hand. He chose to accept the alliance mostly because he wanted to know what else Lakeeme was willing to do for them.

Sensing that his long absence needed an explanation, Lakeeme told them that he had wanted to return sooner, but unfortunately the security procedures within the PTO were very tight. He had to make absolutely sure nobody would grow suspicious of him. Also, acquiring the ship plus the goods and making them disappear without anyone noticing had been a pain in the ass to put it lightly. To top it off, he had to make sure nobody was following the ship to this planet. He had done all this to show his willingness to help them. Ullicu very much appreciated his efforts, but he did not make this too obviously known. He simply nodded a few more times, and told Lakeeme that he had done well.

Lakeeme subsequently removed another box from the spacecraft. This one was considerably larger than the first. It almost didn't fit through the door. Once Lakeeme had put it down on the ground and opened it, he lifted out a black and dark-blue chest armor piece to make clear what the contents of this box were. He further explained that there were both male and female armor sets, including undergarments, gloves and boots. Since he had had access to an armor manufacturing plant, he had managed to get most of their personal preferred armor configurations and colors. Grey for Chayandi, yellow for Tarnece, orange for Sorra and for Ullicu. While looking at Daika, Lakeeme told the group that there were also several spare sets for additional Saiyan survivors.

Daika was still trying to figure out what the scouters were, when Chayandi decided to explain the devices as being objects which functioned through magic. She said this because she believed Daika would not understand it otherwise, since the latter was from a time when Saiyans did not have access to advanced technology. This, however, proved to be a mistake. Daika raised her voice in annoyance of Chayandi for treating her like a child. Chayandi was so surprised by this outburst that she automatically backed a few paces away from her. Daika then insisted that despite the fact that the group had been trying to shield her from the hard truth, she had overheard more than they realized. She revealed she knew that several generations worth of time had passed in between her last encounter with her father Jijimaka and her first encounter with Korat. She knew she wasn't in her own time anymore and that everyone she had known before was probably dead. Furthermore, she bluntly said she knew that the Saiyan race as a whole was in a very dire situation, because of the destruction of their latest home world.

Her outburst silenced the entire group. Lakeeme, who was still holding the chest armor piece, coughed a single time in order to break the silence. His cough caused Daika to focus her attention on him instead. She took notice of the shining armor piece he was holding. Daika recognized it as being of the same design as the armor the others were wearing. This piece had a color scheme which she hadn't seen before, however. She excitedly jumped towards Lakeeme and began tearing off the rags she was wearing. In doing so, she elicited quite a few reactions from the group.

Within seconds, Daika didn't have a single stitch on her. Her long and untidy hair partially obscured her body, but her nakedness was still obvious. Tarnece's jaw dropped, and Sorra swiftly stepped in to try and cover his eyes with her hands, while insisting she was doing it for his own good. Meanwhile, Chayandi turned to Daika with a red face of embarrassment and timidly told her she should stop behaving like an animal, especially in front of guests. Daika looked at Chayandi as if the latter had just said something very strange. Remaining completely silent, Daika used her tail to scratch her head momentarily, before letting it resume a happy swaying pattern. Ullicu found Daika's actions to be rather amusing; he smiled quietly, while not even attempting to do anything about it. Lakeeme remained somewhat serious. He even started instructing Daika how she should wear this uniform.

Once Daika was fully dressed in her new black and dark-blue outfit, she looked like a modern Saiyan for the first time. She even imitated the others by wrapping her tail around her waist. Lakeeme then placed a scouter with a red glass on her face, which made the picture complete, but only temporarily. Daika quickly concluded that she found the position of her tail to be uncomfortable and thus let it slip from her waist. The others were nonetheless surprised by how neat the uniform made her look.

Later that day, when the group was preparing for the evening meal, Lakeeme approached Ullicu. The latter was smoking his self-made pipe at a small distance from the camp. Lakeeme started by saying that they could keep the scouters, the armor, and even the ship if they wanted. The only thing he needed in return for now was one of their space pods so that he could get back to planet Frieza #57. Ullicu, who was still facing away from Lakeeme, then professed his belief that Lakeeme would probably expect something else from them in the future, in return for his efforts.

Lakeeme told him he was certainly right about that; he expected them to actually kill Frieza one day. He also stressed the importance of a strategic plan to achieve this. Ullicu snapped back at him that it was pretty obvious they needed a well thought-out plan. The problem was he didn't know a strategy which was fail-safe. No matter how this plan would unfold, he did not see how they could ever avoid a head-on confrontation that would essentially be a win or die situation. Lakeeme reminded him that every serious battle was always a win or die situation. Ullicu then reasoned that he didn't want to sacrifice their lives if the strategy proved to be flawed. He told Lakeeme he didn't want to lose anyone anymore, a statement which he was surprised to hear coming from his own mouth.

When Ullicu remained silent for a moment, Lakeeme informed him that Aripa and Tidane were doing fine. They were training in their own way on remote planets outside PTO territory, and occasionally returned to planet Frieza #57. His colleague Peorr would look after them during the moments they were back at the base. Beside them, the officially recognized Saiyan survivors Vegeta, Nappa and Raditz were also doing fine, but they could not do anything or go anywhere without Frieza knowing about it. The tyrant had them under his complete control for now.

This last bit of information triggered something in Ullicu. He now very clearly realized something important, as if he had been hit by an energy attack, which had fully awoken his consciousness. They needed to gain _control_. He needed to guide the group to develop their intrigue skills. This way, they could learn more about Frieza's strength, his skills, his tactics, his closest advisors, his family, and maybe even his weaknesses if he had any. They could strike at his empire from within by supplying the right information to the right people. Daika already seemed to have a talent for information gathering. Ullicu then turned to face Lakeeme. He pointed his finger at Lakeeme and told him they needed a planet where they could blend in among the local populace. This planet would serve as a training ground to develop the necessary intrigue skills to complement their current martial skills. Ullicu was convinced that this was the kind of strategy they needed in order to conquer Frieza and his empire.


	17. Spawn of the dragon

**This story is written for entertainment purposes only. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.**

**Keep in mind that English is not my first language and so I do not claim to have written an error free story. If there are any inconsistencies in this story, let me know and I will correct them.**

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><p><span>Chapter 17: Spawn of the dragon<span>

Lord Siglar was sitting on his throne, impatiently tapping his fingers on the armrest. Annoyed, he was mumbling to himself in Namekian. Occasionally, a loud thud could be heard coming from the room above the throne chamber. Muffled screaming could also be heard every now and then. After what seemed like an eternity, his fourth son Lucama returned. He had run back to the throne room, and upon entering immediately informed Siglar that he had brought Bosaba to Lescar. The former was doing everything he could to keep the latter under control. Lord Siglar's face twitched and he bellowed at Lucama that it wasn't working. He ordered his cowering fourth son to help get Lescar out of the building and as far away from the compound as possible. After all, how could they make sure their Saiyan guest wouldn't grow suspicious of them, while someone was screaming with rage in the background?

Lucama quickly ran back to his brothers. When he entered the room, he saw Bosaba keeping Lescar immobilized in a body lock. Bosaba's rotund body was well suited for the purpose. Meanwhile, Lescar was struggling intensely, foaming at the mouth with rage. However, it wasn't rage directed at his brothers; it was rage directed at the Saiyan. Yesterday he had been able to control himself, but this morning he had awoken in a bad mood to put it mildly. Right now, he appeared to be in a rage-induced trance. He did not appear to be able to think straight. Between his angry screams, he obsessively muttered barely coherent sentences, primarily related to killing or destroying. Both Bosaba and Lucama had no idea what was going on, because for Lescar, losing control like this wasn't anything like him.

When Lucama asked what he should do, Bosaba instructed him to stay right there in the door opening. He revealed he was going to release Lescar, who would then lunge forward to escape. Bosaba needed Lucama to create a brief distraction so that he could knock Lescar unconscious. It took a few seconds before Lucama finally found the courage to accept the plan. Bosaba then shouted and released his grip on Lescar. The latter leapt forward just as predicted. Lucama quickly created an energy field around his body. Lescar was hit by this sudden burst of energy, and was momentarily halted. This was all Bosaba needed; he swiftly jumped up, spun around in the air and stomped Lescar on the back of his head with a powerful kick. Lescar was immediately knocked out and fell to the ground. Not willing to find out how long he was going to stay in this condition, Bosaba and Lucama promptly began carrying away his body.

Not long after Lescar had been knocked out, Racol and Korat entered the throne chamber. Both Lord Siglar and Korat were eager to learn what the other had to say. Lord Siglar started by asking in a jolly voice how his 'dear friends' the Saiyans were doing. Korat replied in a monotone voice that they were doing fine. He completely omitted the part about their home planet having been destroyed. Lord Siglar already knew this from an outside source; he didn't need Korat to tell him. It was clear to him that Korat was not going to be open about himself or his race. Korat then reminded Siglar of what the latter had said yesterday; that he had a lot of stories to share. He admitted that he was very interested in hearing about Siglar's previous encounter with the Saiyans.

Lord Siglar felt the hate inside him swell. The Saiyans had once nearly crushed him to death, but now he had to pretend they had been his best buddies. For a moment, he thought about killing Korat right here and now. That would certainly brighten his day. However, Siglar remembered that there were other Saiyans still out there. If Korat did not return to them, they would most likely search for him and come here. Then Siglar had no choice but to face a bunch of vengeful and battle-ready Saiyans. If he wanted to take his revenge by exterminating them, he had to be very patient and wait for the right moment. Korat was instrumental in getting the other Saiyans to lower their guard. For now, he had to convince Korat that he was not a threat. All these years, Siglar had managed to live calmly, albeit with a burning desire for revenge, so he reckoned he should be able to go on like this for a few more years if needed. The question was if his children, especially Lescar, would be able to do the same.

And so Siglar quickly thought up a cover story about his encounter. He made large gestures with his hands as he gave very vague descriptions about the events, and tried to deliberately trail off the subject. When Korat would ask sharp questions, Siglar would respond in varying ways. A few times, he pretended to have misheard or misinterpreted the question, giving boringly long descriptions about unrelated subjects. Other times, he told Korat that it had been so long ago that he couldn't remember the details correctly. Twice, he even faked having a coughing fit.

Korat eventually became frustrated by being unable to extract any useful information from him. Siglar could hear from his tone of voice that he didn't take him seriously anymore, as if he had realized the futility of trying to extract facts from a senile old fool. Eventually, Korat decided for himself that he had seen and heard enough. When Siglar finally ended his last pointless monologue, Korat said that he was 'honored' to have met him and his children, but that it was now time he returned to his people. Lord Siglar smiled and nodded in understanding. He too thought up some parting words to say. Once Korat and Racol had left the chamber and were out of earshot, Siglar spat on the ground a few times in disgust. Although it had been an unpleasant experience for him, the goal seemed to have been reached.

Some distance away from the Namekian compound, in the middle of dark green meadow, Lescar had reawakened. His brothers were standing close by; Bosaba in a defensive fighting stance and Lucama in a posture ready to generate another energy field. Lescar appeared to be somewhat calmer than before. He slowly stood up from the ground, grinned at Bosaba for a moment, and then leapt into the air. Lucama was overwhelmed by his speed, but not Bosaba, who jumped up at around the same time. A brief physical fight in the air ensued, ending when both Lescar and Bosaba landed on the ground at the same time, creating a small crater at their feet. They were locked in a power struggle, standing opposite each other. Bosaba had his hands gripped around Lescar's forearms, while the latter attempted to break free. Lescar was starting to foam at the mouth again.

Bosaba then began speaking to him in a calm though stern manner. He told his brother that they had to be patient. They had to let the Saiyan go, but only so that he would be the key to all the others. They would get their revenge, but not if he would kill the Saiyan right now. Then they would have nothing except a one-minute victory. Bosaba subsequently acknowledged Lescar's great power, and insisted that it could be directed elsewhere, into something more constructive. It took a while for the message to sink in. Eventually, Lescar stopped struggling. Bosaba let go of his arms, and Lescar remained standing opposite him. All seemed to be well for a moment, until Lescar tensioned all muscles in his body. This time, he did not attempt to go anywhere, however. It seemed he had decided to do literally what Bosaba had alluded to. His throat started to expand in size until it was wider than his head. Bosaba quickly backed away from him. Lescar slowly opened his mouth, causing slime to drip out and exposing the nearly white shell of the egg in his throat. He moved his head back and a few more seconds later, he spat out the egg, which hit the ground with a soft thud.

Within moments, it began moving on its own. The shell cracked and something began working its way out. Lucama and Bosaba had not expected the egg to hatch so soon after being formed. It was an immediate sign to them that something was amiss. Their suspicions were confirmed when it became clear that the son of Lescar was malformed. With Lescar laughing in the background, they looked on in shock as the screeching creature, having claws, wings and an elongated snout, writhed its way out of the egg.

Far away from the planet Sla'ak-Namek, on the planet #57 of Frieza's empire, the personnel in the control tower were tracking a group unidentified objects entering the planet's atmosphere. The large screens inside the main control room were filled with radio wave data. About half a dozen operators were currently working at the computers. One of the operators, a purple-skinned alien with antennae, now radioed a nearby patrol squad. The members of the squad received the transmission on their scouters. The operator notified them of the unidentified objects that were about to hit the surface in sector 317, some distance away from the base. He ordered the squad to perform a routine check and to report their findings via scouter. The operator briefed them that they were most likely dealing with several meteors; nothing terribly exciting.

The squad, consisting of three soldiers, quickly flew to sector 317. Just when they arrived at the location, two round meteors of equal size crashed into the ground up ahead. While the dust was still settling, the three approached the crash site. At the moment they thought they could see the craters, two of them noticed that the third soldier had suddenly disappeared. Before they could react to this alarming development, both were swiftly dragged into the cloud of dust.

Meanwhile, the control room operators only heard muffled noises. They tried multiple times to contact the soldiers, but did not get a response. Minutes later, one of the soldiers finally gave a sign of life. He sounded a bit dazed and answered that they had found the craters, but strangely the meteors had evaporated after impact. This sudden burst of dust was what had caught them all off guard. Shortly after he gave this explanation, the other two soldiers reported in. All three were unharmed. The operators in the control room briefly discussed amongst themselves how to categorize the event. The purple-skinned alien with antennae wanted to classify it as a scientific anomaly requiring further investigation. The others, however, decided that no further investigation was necessary, because their scientists did not have the time to deal with meteors, unless they could provide proof they were dealing with something special here. The operators did decide it would be best to put the soldiers in quarantine as a precaution.

Peorr was the only PTO member on the planet who knew what had actually been taking place. He was standing just outside a rarely used back-entrance to a maintenance hangar. Near him was a vehicle with a flat trailer that carried a few boxes and crates. He was relieved when he spotted Aripa and Tidane. Both were flying low to the ground, each carrying a space pod on their back. After they put the pods into the boxes onto the trailer, Peorr urged them to hop into a box themselves before anyone would see them. Both did so without a second thought. Peorr had a feeling that this was probably the first time they had done something he had asked of them without any form of protest. He didn't know if it was true, but it seemed to him that Aripa had mellowed down since Tidane had joined her.

Soon, Peorr was driving the vehicle through the hangar, where dozens of space pods and multiple other spacecraft were being maintained. The noise of the tools and machinery prevented anyone from hearing the two Saiyans talking to each other inside one of the boxes. Aripa was sitting on Tidane's lap. Tidane was resting her head on Aripa's shoulder and had her arms around the latter's waist. Both were grimy from their latest adventure. With a smile, Aripa recounted how surprised she had been when the local populace had conjured up a mud monster from a nearby lake. Tidane quickly called the monster one of the most disgusting things she had ever seen, which she did in such a grumpy tone of voice that it made them both laugh.

Aripa continued by giving a description with gestures and by imitating the sounds of how she had sliced the monster in half with her attack and how it had caused a load of mud to rain down on top of her. Feeling mischievous, Tidane responded by grabbing some mud out of her own hair and sticking her hand down the collar of Aripa's armor. Aripa jumped and let out a small yelp, but did not stop Tidane, who continued to rub out the mud all over her back. They both agreed that their excursion had been a lot of fun.

Later, after Peorr had wheeled their box to the basement room and left them alone, Aripa got an idea about what their next target could be. While Tidane was still showering, Aripa was sitting in a white chair, wrapped in multiple towels, having already cleaned herself. That was why she had had some time to think. When Tidane, wrapped in a large towel, finally exited the shower compartment, Aripa shared her thoughts.

She knew of a place called Bolwor's hive. It was a planet with a giant insectoid hive that was ruled by the powerful insectoid leader Bolwor. These bipedal insectoids loved to mine precious stones and used them to decorate their hive. Last she heard, the leader had been absent from the planet for years in order to pursue other interests, such as conquering other races. Without their leader, the lesser bugs were not well organized. Still, this entire race would present a fighting challenge for the two of them. Stealing the precious stones would be an added bonus.

Tidane then asked her if it wouldn't be more of a challenge if the leader was there when they would attack. Although she liked having fun, they also had to work towards improving themselves. Facing Bolwor while he was leading his bugs sounded as if it would be more of a challenge. Aripa bit her lower lip and told Tidane that this might be a bit too ambitious. Bolwor was supposedly at least as strong as Zarbon, but the exact power level was unknown. Anyhow, they didn't know where he was. It was quite possible he was dead.

Tidane then teased Aripa by saying that she thought she heard fear in her voice. Aripa immediately jumped up from her chair and declared that she wasn't scared of Bolwor. She looked somewhat agitated, but noticeably she did a poor job to suppress a smile. Aripa then grabbed Tidane's towel and pulled it away, calling it payback for teasing her and for smearing mud all over her. Unexpectedly, Tidane didn't seem to mind it that much. She quickly returned the favor by pulling at Aripa's waist towel. In the ensuing struggle, Aripa accidently kicked a wall, causing it to crack and causing the room to briefly shake. Both stopped as they remembered where they were; they had to be careful.


End file.
